In Three Years
by KatyPotter
Summary: A few days after the graveyard incident Dumbledore found a book for three years in the future. A group reads the deathly hallows, will Harry find out who is the mother of his daughter? Can Fudge see that Voldemort really is back? Rating because I'm parinoid.
1. Chapter 1 The Dark Lord Ascending

**This is taking place in Harry's fourth year, right after the third task and before Harry goes back to the Dursley's.(He's still in the hospital wing with Sirius.) On Fanfiction they are taking down the 'reading the stories' stories and it's kind of pissing me off…well here is one of my favorite stories that I'm worried is going to be deleted shortly from Fanfiction.**

**(5/30/11- Soooo, now I hear that there will be no deletion of these stories! Time to repost!)**

_**Disclaimer:**__** I do not own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does… **_

Harry was still in the hospital wing. He was dreaming, dreaming of Cedric dyeing because of him, dyeing because he was too noble to just grab the damn cup. He woke up in a cold sweat. Snuffles was lying right next to him keeping him safe. And Ginny was sleeping in the chair next to him holding his other hand.

Harry was slightly embarrassed at this but her hand felt nice in his so he left his hand there. In the next ten minutes Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, Remus, and Tonks come into the room.

"Ah, Harry, I have found something and I would like to read you the letter and then you can tell me whether or not to read the rest." Dumbledore said softly.

_Dear Da-Harry,_

_You will not know who I am because I am from the future. I might as well tell you that I am your daughter. I will not tell you who my mother is. You will have to figure that out yourself. I have sent you a book to read with a few friends in hoping to change the future. I may also have some selfish reasons in hoping to meet a few people who die and don't deserve to die. I'm also hoping you and Mom can get together quicker._

_Love your Daughter,_

_L.L.P._

_P.S. I may come and visit you when you figure out who Mom is._

Dumbledore read. "Would you like to read the book that came with it?"

"Yeah, she says she wants to prevent deaths and I can't argue with that." Harry said, sitting up and slowly waking up Ginny.

"Then I guess I can invite the rest of the people on this list." Dumbledore chuckled.

Harry gave him a confused look. "There was a list of people of who should come." Dumbledore explained. Harry nodded and Dumbledore handed him the list.

_~Harry Potter_

_~Ginny Weasley_

_~Ron Weasley_

_~Hermione Granger_

_~Sirius Black-Snuffles_

_~Bill Weasley_

_~Fleur Delecore_

_~Remus Lupin_

_~Dora Tonks_

_~Albus Dumbledore_

_~Severus Snape_

_~Luna Lovegood_

_~Draco Malfoy_

_~Neville Longbottom_

_~George Weasley_

_~Fred Weasley_

_~Percy Weasley_

_~Cornelius Fudge_

"Bloody hell that's a lot of people, mate." Ron said.

"Yeah, nineteen people." Hermione said.

"It looks like there is a separate note for Minister Fudge." Harry said.

"I think it's about Sirius." Hermione said. "If he's going to read the books with us he has to know about Sirius."

"What's with Sirius? Isn't he a mass murderer?" Ginny asked.

"No, Ginny, Sirius Black was framed by Peter Pettigrew. Peter, Sirius, and my Dad were unregistered animagi. Peter was the secret keeper for my parents, not Sirius. Peter gave them up to Voldemort and then framed Sirius before turning into a rat and hid in the sewers. He became part of your family as Scabbers. Sirius is innocent and would do anything for me including being a dog and sitting on my hospital bed." Harry chuckled as Ginny looked at Snuffles with big eyes.

Snuffles just chuckled like a dog and liked her hand that was still in Harry's. She tried to pull away but Harry kept her hand in his. She blushed but kept her hand in his. At that moment Fleur, Bill, George, Fred, Remus, Tonks, Percy, Neville, Luna, Snape, Fudge, Draco, and Dumbledore came through the door of the hospital wing.

"What is all this about Dumbledore?" Fudge asked in an angry voice.

"Cornelius, I was asked to give you this." Dumbledore said handing Fudge the letter stating that Sirius Black was innocent.

"Sirius Black is not an innocent man!" Fudge yelled.

"Severus, do you have the veritasirum with you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, sir." Snape sneered.

"Cornelius, I need your word that you will not do anything rash until the veritasirum has been used." Dumbledore said. Fudge just nodded. "Sirius, you may come out now."

Snuffles got off of the bed and transformed. There were gasps around the room. "Severus if you will." Dumbledore said. Snape poured the veritasirum in Sirius' mout and Sirius eyes looked glazed over.

"Mr. Black, did you pass information to Voldemort about the location of Lily and James Potter?" Dumbledore asked.

"No." Sirius said.

"Did you kill Peter Petigrew?" He asked.

"No." Sirius said but added as an afterthought. "But I wish I could have."

"Do you know who gave the information to Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes." Sirius said.

"Who passed information to Voldemort about Lily and James?"

"Peter Pettigrew." Sirius answered.

"There you have it Minister, you may ask questions for about two more minutes before the potion wears off, but even then I'm sure he would tell the truth." Dumbledore said.

"Why did you sneak into Hogwarts last year?" Fudge asked.

"I was after Peter who I had just found out had betrayed Lily and James."

"Were you trying to kill Harry Potter?"

"No! I could have killed him while he was on his bed a second ago, but I didn't now did I?"

"Mr. Black, why didn't you tell us this?" Fudge asked.

"I was never given a trial. I had no choice not to. You wouldn't listen when I tried." Sirius sighed. Fudge looked scared for convicting an innocent man and stopped asking questions.

"Mr. Black, I am sorry for convicting you as a murderer. You will get an official apology and will be released. You are free." Minister Fudge said with a scared look on his face. "Now why else am I here?"

"We are here to read a book about Harry Potter's future and the future of the wizarding world." Dumbledore said. "This book is three years in the future. You are all here for a reason. The person who sent the books wanted to avoid the deaths of certain people."

"The person said she was my daughter and that once I figured out who her mother was she would come and read the rest of the book with us." Harry said.

"Than what are we still doing sitting here? Let's read!" Sirius said.

"If you don't mind I will read first." Dumbledore said opening the book. **"Dark Lord Ascending."**

Fudge looked angry, "He is not back!"

"Why do you ignore the evidence? You sent an innocent man to jail without evidence and now you're threatening the wizarding world because of the same mistake!" Harry shouted. "An innocent student died because of Voldemort and you will shut up and listen to the story and then know I am telling the truth _before_ another innocent person dies!"

Fudge looked scandalized. Dumbledore took this as a sign and continued to read.

**The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction. **

**"News?" asked the taller of the two. **

**"The best," replied Severus Snape. **

"What are you doing there?" Harry asked angry.

"He is a spy for Voldemort and us. We need him at Voldemort's disposal." Dumbledore explained. "We will not judge people until the end of this book." The tone in his voice closed the matter.

**The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, on the right by a high, neatly manicured hedge. The men's long cloaks flapped around their ankles as they marched. "Thought I might be late," said Yaxley, his blunt features sliding in and out of sight as the branches of overhanging trees broke the moonlight.**

**"It was a little trickier than I expected. But I hope he will be satisfied. You sound confident that your reception will be good?" Snape nodded, but did not elaborate. They turned right, into a wide driveway that led off the lane. The high hedge curved into them, running off into the distance beyond the pair of imposing wrought-iron gates barring the men's way. Neither of them broke step: In silence both raised their left arms in a kind of salute and passed straight through, as though the dark metal was smoke.**

"That's our mansion." Draco said. All of a sudden he was afraid. If Voldemort was at his house it wouldn't be good.

**The yew hedges muffled the sound of the men's footsteps. There was a rustle somewhere to their right: Yaxley drew his wand again pointing it over his companion's head, but the source of the noise proved to be nothing more than a pure-white peacock, strutting majestically along the top of the hedge.**

"**He always did himself well, Lucius. Peacocks …" Yaxley thrust his wand back under his cloak with a snort.**

There were also a few snorts throughout the room.

**A handsome manor house grew out of the darkness at the end of the straight drive, lights glinting in the diamond paned downstairs windows. Somewhere in the dark garden beyond the hedge a fountain was playing. Gravel crackled beneath their feet as Snape and Yaxley sped toward the front door, which swung inward at their approach, though nobody had visibly opened it.**

**The hallway was large, dimly lit, and sumptuously decorated, with a magnificent carpet covering most of the stone floor. The eyes of the pale-faced portraits on the wall followed Snape and Yaxley as they strode past. The two men halted at a heavy wooden door leading into the next room, hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, then Snape turned the bronze handle.**

**The drawing room was full of silent people, sitting at a long and ornate table. The room's usual furniture had been pushed carelessly up against the walls. Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror. Snape and Yaxley lingered for a moment on the threshold. As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light, they were drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside down over the table, revolving slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below. **

**None of the people seated underneath this singular sight were looking at it except for a pale young man sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glancing upward every minute or so.**

"Malfoy?" Ron asked.

"Most likely." Draco said, "If I didn't have a choice I most likely would have joined to save my life." Draco drawled.

"**Yaxley. Snape," said a high, clear voice from the head of the table. "You are very nearly late."**

**The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As they drew nearer, however, his face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical. He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.**

Harry shuddered at the description. "He's back?" Fudge asked.

"If you were to pay attention to what I said a few days ago you would have known that Cedric Diggory did not die of his own accord. He died by a servant of Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew killed Cedric. The man who framed my godfather and got my parents killed, killed a brave school mate." Harry said enraged. Fudge gulped but nodded, he seemed to agree that Voldemort but he still had his doubts.

"**Severus, here," said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right. "Yaxley – beside Dolohov."**

"You're his right hand man?" Sirius asked enraged.

"If I want to survive that is the best place for me to be." Snape said.

"If you cared one bi-" Sirius started.

"Sirius!" Harry shouted, "Knock it off, Professor Snape has done nothing yet. I have had enough yelling for a lifetime so please stop." At that point Ginny got off of her seat and laid next to Harry. The Weasley boys looked at Ginny and then smiled. They knew Harry would take good care of their sister.

**The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape, and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.**

"**So?"**

"**My Lord, the Order of the Phoenix intends to move Harry Potter from his current place of safety on Saturday next, at nightfall."**

Sirius got up and Harry grabbed his wand shakily and body bound and silenced his godfather. "Sirius I meant what I said. No more yelling. I have had enough. Professor Snape did what he had to do to survive, I won't begrudge him that." Harry said putting back down his wand. Snape looked astounded; James Potters son had just stood up for him. No, Harry wasn't just James son he was also Lily's. Snape vowed to remember that from then on.

**The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened, others fidgeted, all gazing at Snape and Voldemort.**

**"Saturday … at nightfall," repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape's black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort's face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort's lipless mouth curved into something like a smile.**

"**Good. Very good. And this information comes –"**

" – **from the source we discussed," said Snape.**

"**My Lord."**

**Yaxley had leaned forward to look down the long table at Voldemort and Snape. All faces turned to him.**

"**My Lord, I have heard differently."**

**Yaxley waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, "Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that Potter will not be moved until the thirtieth, the night before the boy turns seventeen."**

"I really doubt that will happen." Dumbledore said.

"Why is that sir?" Harry asked.

"The ministry would have been infiltrated. There is a special order against Voldemort that would have helped relocate you. I shall tell you about it later." Dumbledore smiled and continued reading.

**Snape was smiling.**

"**My source told me that there are plans to lay a false trail; this must be it. No doubt a Confundus Charm has been placed upon Dawlish. It would not be the first time; he is known to be susceptible."**

Snape snorted.

"**I assure you, my Lord, Dawlish seemed quite certain," said Yaxley.**

"No duh." All of the teenagers said causing the adults to chuckle.

"**If he has been Confunded, naturally he is certain," said Snape. "I assure you, Yaxley, the Auror Office will play no further part in the protection of Harry Potter. The Order believes that we have infiltrated the Ministry."**

"Because it would have." Harry mumbled. Fudge started to worry, what could he do to keep Voldemort's people out of his ministry?

"**The Order's got one thing right, then, eh?" said a squat man sitting a short distance from Yaxley; he gave a wheezy giggle that was echoed here and there along the table.**

**Voldemort did not laugh. His gaze had wandered upward to the body revolving slowly overhead, and he seemed to be lost in thought.**

**"My Lord," Yaxley went on, "Dawlish believes an entire party of Aurors will be used to transfer the boy –"**

**Voldemort held up a large white hand, and Yaxley subsided at once, watching resentfully as Voldemort turned back to Snape.**

"**Where are they going to hide the boy next?"**

"**At the home of one of the Order," said Snape. "The place, according to the source, has been given every protection that the Order and Ministry together could provide. I think that there is little chance of taking him once he is there, my Lord, unless, of course, the Ministry has fallen before next Saturday, which might give us the opportunity to discover and undo enough of the enchantments to break through the rest."**

Sirius started to wiggle. Harry just sighed, he didn't know what else he could do about his godfather.

"**Well, Yaxley?" Voldemort called down the table, the firelight glinting strangely in his red eyes. "Will the Ministry have fallen by next Saturday?"**

**Once again, all heads turned. Yaxley squared his shoulders.**

"**My Lord, I have good news on that score. I have – with difficulty, and after great effort – succeeded in placing an Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse."**

Fudge just moaned, he really didn't want the ministry to fall and he had no idea how to stop it. He was going to have to be extra careful.

**Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbor, Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.**

"**It is a start," said Voldemort. "But Thicknesse is only one man. Scrimgeour must be surrounded by our people before I act. One failed attempt on the Minister's life will set me back a long way."**

"**Yes – my Lord, that is true – but you know, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself, but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all work together to bring Scrimgeour down."**

"I must have resigned." Fudge huffed.

"It might have had something to do with sending an innocent man to Azkaban for twelve years and then Voldemort came back and you didn't believe it. That was not a very good thing to happen." Bill said.

"**As long as our friend Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest," said Voldemort. "At any rate, it remains unlikely that the Ministry will be mine before next Saturday. If we cannot touch the boy at his destination, then it must be done while he travels."**

"Great." Harry groaned, Ginny just held Harry tighter, she did not want to think about Harry in danger.

"**We are at an advantage there, my Lord," said Yaxley, who seemed determined to receive some portion of approval. "We now have several people planted within the Department of Magical Transport. If Potter Apparates or uses the Floo Network, we shall know immediately."**

"**He will not do either," said Snape. "The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the Ministry; they mistrust everything to do with the place."**

Sirius started to wiggle again. "Sirius, I will not say again. And you're not helping your case any." Harry said.

"**All the better," said Voldemort. "He will have to move in the open. Easier to take, by far."**

Ginny hugged Harry close and everyone else groaned. They were all worried for Harry's safety.

**Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, "I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs."**

"It is not you bloody bastard!" Ginny yelled. "Harry is a great wizard and he doesn't need your mistakes to beat you." People started clapping and whistling. Ginny blushed and put her lips by Harry's ear causing him to shiver. "You help our world by just being you."

**The company around the table watched Voldemort apprehensively, each of them, by his or her expression, afraid that they might be blamed for Harry Potter's continued existence. Voldemort, however, seemed to be speaking more to himself than to any of them, still addressing the unconscious body above him.**

"Zat poor perzon." Fleur said. Bill not knowing what he was doing grabbed her hand trying to comfort her. It worked and she smiled.

**"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter, and I shall be."**

"Now he's just repeating himself. That's almost exactly what he said a few nights ago." Harry shivered. Fudge looked upset that the poor both had to go through that. He wished he had listened to him in the first place.

**At these words, seemingly in response to them, a sudden wail sounded, a terrible, drawn-out cry of misery and pain. Many of those at the table looked downward, startled, for the sound had seemed to issue from below their feet.**

"**Wormtail," said Voldemort,**

Sirius was wiggling like crazy now. Remus hissed and his eyes filled with anger and hatred. Harry held on to Ginny like she was his rock. Tonks held Remus' hand so he could feel comfort.

**with no change in his quiet, thoughtful tone, and without removing his eyes from the revolving body above, "have I not spoken to you about keeping our prisoner quiet?"**

"**Yes, m-my Lord," gasped a small man halfway down the table, who had been sitting so low in his chair that it appeared, at first glance, to be unoccupied. Now he scrambled from his seat and scurried from the room, leaving nothing behind him but a curious gleam of silver.**

"Coward." Remus and Harry said together.

"**As I was saying," continued Voldemort, looking again at the tense faces of his followers, "I understand better now. I shall need, for instance, to borrow a wand from one of you before I go to kill Potter."**

Everyone looked confused at this except for Harry and Dumbledore. "That's because my wand has the twin core to his wand." Harry explained, "His wand can't kill me and my wand can't kill him."

"That's just bloody wonderful." Ron mumbled.

**The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.**

"That's what it would have been like. Not being able to have your wand is like not having an arm." Bill explained. Percy didn't know what to think anymore.

**"No volunteers?" said Voldemort. "Let's see … Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore."**

Draco went more pale and gulped.

**Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.**

"**My Lord?"**

"**Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."**

"**I …"**

**Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.**

"Not even my worst enemy deserves that." Harry mumbled so only Ginny could hear.

"**What is it?"**

"**Elm, my Lord," whispered Malfoy.**

"**And the core?"**

"**Dragon – dragon heartstring."**

"**Good," said Voldemort. He drew out his wand and compared the lengths. Lucius Malfoy made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a second, it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort's wand in exchange for his own. The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, whose eyes widened maliciously.**

"Malfoy, if this ever happens. Tell your father not to do that. That could turn out really badly." Harry said. "He was terrible to the death eaters a few nights ago and no one deserves that." Malfoy just nodded silently.

"**Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?"**

**Some of the throng sniggered.**

"**I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late … What is it about my presence in your home that displaces you, Lucius?"**

"Everything." Ron hissed. Malfoy nodded at Ron's words. Something no one expected.

"**Nothing – nothing, my Lord!"**

"**Such lies Lucius … "**

**The soft voice seemed to hiss on even after the cruel mouth had stopped moving. One or two of the wizards barely repressed a shudder as the hissing grew louder; something heavy could be heard sliding across the floor beneath the table.**

**The huge snake emerged to climb slowly up Voldemort's chair. It rose, seemingly endlessly, and came to rest across Voldemort's shoulders: its neck the thickness of a man's thigh; its eyes, with their vertical slits for pupils, unblinking. Voldemort stroked the creature absently with long thin fingers, still looking at Lucius Malfoy.**

"**Why do the Malfoys look so unhappy with their lot? Is my return, my rise to power, not the very thing they professed to desire for so many years?"**

"No one wanted him to return, why does he feel the need to show his ugly face to us?" Harry asked.

"That would-" Fred started.

"Be a great-" George continued.

"Weasley product!" The twins finished together.

"**Of course, my Lord," said Lucius Malfoy. His hand shook as he wiped sweat from his upper lip. "We did desire it – we do."**

"I think that that was a lie." Tonks said.

"I would say so too." Remus said.

**To Malfoy's left, his wife made an odd, stiff nod, her eyes averted from Voldemort and the snake. To his right, his son, Draco, who had been gazing up at the inert body overhead, glanced quickly at Voldemort and away again, terrified to make eye contact.**

"Don't worry, everyone must feel that way." Luna said dreamily.

"Except for Harry, he could look Voldemort in the eye and insult him like crazy. Not that I would do that anymore." Ron said.

"I still look him in the eye, I just don't insult him so much anymore. I really don't want to die anytime soon." Harry admitted.

"I wouldn't want to either." Neville agreed with a nod.

"**My Lord," said a dark woman halfway down the table, her voice constricted with emotion, it is an honor to have you here, in our family's house. There can be no higher pleasure."**

**She sat beside her sister, as unlike her in looks, with her dark hair and heavily lidded eyes, as she was in bearing and demeanor; where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned toward Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longing for closeness.**

Neville clenched his fists but kept his face impassive. "That bitch." Neville mumbled so low no one could hear.

"**No higher pleasure," repeated Voldemort, his head tilted a little to one side as he considered Bellatrix. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you."**

"He just uses her, he really doesn't like her." Luna said in her usual dreamy voice, everyone nodded in agreement.

**Her face flooded with color; her eyes welled with tears of delight.**

"**My Lord knows I speak nothing but the truth!"**

"**No higher pleasure … even compared with the happy event that, I hear, has taken place in your family this week?"**

"What does that mean." Tonks asked. Everyone looked at her strangely, "Sad to say she is my aunt and the little runt over there." Tonks said pointing to Draco with her free hand, "Is my cousin. Black is also my cousin but I like him better." Tonks admitted.

**She stared at him, her lips parted, evidently confused.**

"**I don't know what you mean, my Lord."**

"**I'm talking about your niece, Bellatrix. And yours, Lucius and Narcissa. She has just married the werewolf, Remus Lupin. You must be so proud."**

Remus looked shocked to say the least and Tonks looked so happy. "CONGRADULATIONS!" Everyone yelled. "Moony! We are real family now!" Sirius said excitedly.

"Not yet anyway, Padfoot." Remus said with a blush.

"But soon enough." Sirius said with a grin. Realizing that Harry had let him out of the charms he sat next to Remus who was still holding Tonks hand.

"I thought you would like to congratulate your best friend." Harry admitted. Sirius nodded.

**There was an eruption of jeering laughter from around the table. Many leaned forward to exchange gleeful looks; a few thumped the table with their fists. The giant snake, disliking the disturbance, opened its mouth wide and hissed angrily, but the Death Eaters did not hear it, so jubilant were they at Bellatrix and the Malfoys' humiliation. Bellatrix's face, so recently flushed with happiness, had turned an ugly, blotchy red.**

**"She is no niece of ours, my Lord," she cried over the outpouring of mirth. "We – Narcissa and I – have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries."**

"It is none of your business who I do or don't marry!" Tonks told the book. Remus grabbed Tonks and she leaned on his shoulder feeling comfortable there.

"It doesn't matter, Dora." Remus said. She nodded.

"Why can he call you Dora and I can't?" Sirius asked. She didn't answer but Fleur smacked him behind the head for her.

"Thank you." Tonks murmered.

"**What say you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, it carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. "Will you babysit the cubs?"**

Remus blanched at that but no one noticed.

**The hilarity mounted; Draco Malfoy looked in terror at his father, who was staring down into his own lap, then caught his mother's eye. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, then resumed her own deadpan stare at the opposite wall.**

"**Enough," said Voldemort, stroking the angry snake. "Enough."**

**And the laughter died at once.**

"**Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time," he said as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring, "You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest."**

"That is sick." Hermione said.

"It truly is, it shouldn't matter what kind of blood you have just as long as you're family." Dumbledore said.

"**Yes, my Lord," whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude again. "At the first chance!"**

"**You shall have it," said Voldemort. "And in your family, so in the world … we shall cut away the canker that infects us until only those of the true blood remain …"**

People mumbled at that. They didn't like the idea of all purebloods in the world. "If the wizarding world is al purebloods then we will all die out." Ron said.

"You're right Mr. Weasley, if we do not marry muggleborns or halfbloods, or even muggles we will die out." Dumbledore said.

"What is he even going on about? Purebloods? He is a halfblood. He told me himself in the graveyard. He had me on his father's muggle grave." Harry said.

"That is so not right." Neville mumbled.

**Voldemort raised Lucius Malfoy's wand, pointed it directly at the slowly revolving figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds.**

"**Do you recognize our guest, Severus?" asked Voldemort.**

**Snape raised his eyes to the upside down face. All of the Death Eaters were looking up at the captive now, as though they had been given permission to show curiosity. As she revolved to face the firelight, the woman said in a cracked and terrified voice, "Severus! Help me!"**

"**Ah, yes," said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again.**

Sirius glared at Snape but didn't say anything.

"**And you, Draco?" asked Voldemort, stroking the snake's snout with his wand-free hand. Draco shook his head jerkily. Now that the woman had woken, he seemed unable to look at her anymore.**

"**But you would not have taken her classes," said Voldemort. "For those of you who do not know, we are joined here tonight by Charity Burbage who, until recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."**

"Oh, sweet Merlin!" Hermione said. "She was such a sweet woman. Please tell me we can help her?" Hermione asked worried.

"We can change what is to happen." Dumbledore explained.

**There were small noises of comprehension around the table. A broad, hunched woman with pointed teeth cackled.**

"**Yes … Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards all about Muggles … how they are not so different from us … "**

"That's because they aren't that different from us." Luna said in her usual voice.

"You're right, Miss Loveood. They aren't that different from us." Dumbledore said.

**One of the Death Eaters spat on the floor. Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape again.**

"**Severus … please … please … "**

"You just left her there?" Sirius asked enraged. Before he could move Harry placed a sticking spell on him and his seat so he couldn't get up.

"Sirius, Knock it off. Professor Snape has done nothing yet and there was nothing he could do without getting himself or Miss Burbage killed." Harry said.

**"Silence," said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy's wand, and Charity fell silent as if gagged. "Not content with corrupting and polluting the minds of Wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defense of Mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the purebloods is, says Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance … She would have us all mate with Muggles … or, no doubt, werewolves … "**

"There is nothing wrong with werewolves!" Sirius, Harry, and Tonks yelled together.

"Thanks guys." Remus said blushing.

**Nobody laughed this time. There was no mistaking the anger and contempt in Voldemort's voice. For the third time, Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape. Tears were pouring from her eyes into her hair. Snape looked back at her, quite impassive, as she turned slowly away from him again.**

"**Avada Kedavra"**

Ginny placed her head in Harry's chest and started to sob, Hermione did the same but in Ron's chest causing Harry and the rest of the Weasley's to smirk.

**The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room. Charity fell, with a resounding crash, onto the table below, which trembled and creaked. Several of the Death Eaters leapt back in their chairs. Draco fell out of his onto the floor.**

"**Dinner, Nagini," said Voldemort softly, and the great snake swayed and slithered from his shoulders onto the polished wood.**

"That is sick." Hermione said.

"It truly is, Miss Granger." Dumbledore sighed.

"He truly is back?" Fudge asked.

"What have I been trying to tell you the past few days?" Harry asked still rubbing circles on Ginny's back.

"Can I read next?" Percy asked.

"Sure, Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore said handing over the book.


	2. Chapter 2 In Memoriam

**Next chapter! Yay! Understanding Potter next chapter is going to be up soon! I promise. And thank you to my lovely beta AmyRose512!**

**Disclaimer:****I do not own Harry Potter that honor goes to J.K Rowling.**

Percy grabbed the book and started to read. "**In Memoriam**" Everyone froze. Someone had died. They really wanted to know who would die. They hoped that they could prevent it.

**Harry was bleeding.**

Ginny groaned, "Why is it always you who gets hurt?" She asked.

Harry just chuckled, "That's my luck."

**Clutching his right hand in his left and swearing under his breath, he shouldered open his bedroom door. There was a crunch of breaking china. He had trodden on a cup of cold tea that had been sitting on the floor outside his bedroom door.**

"OK…?"Fred asked.

"Why?" George asked.

"I'm really not sure. I'm sure if you allow Percy to read we will find out." Harry said.

**"What the -?"**

**He looked around, the landing of number four, Privet Drive, was deserted. Possibly the cup of tea was Dudley's idea of a clever booby trap.**

"Ohhh! So the-" George started.

"Whale likes to think of-" Fred continued.

"Lame practical jokes?" They asked together.

"Erm…"Harry wondered. "No, he just likes to get me into trouble."

Hermione and Ron looked livid at this piece of information.

**Keeping his bleeding hand elevated, Harry scraped the fragments of cup together with the other hand and threw them into the already crammed bin just visible inside his bedroom door. Then he tramped across to the bathroom to run his finger under the tap.**

**It was stupid, pointless, irritating beyond belief that he still had four days left of being unable to perform magic…**

"Ahhh…the last few days are the worst." Bill chuckled. "I remember them, they were terrible."

"They really were." Remus agreed. "Especially for Sirius. He wouldn't stop annoying me with his constant badgering." Tonks and Harry chuckled at the image as Sirius pouted.

**but he had to admit to himself that this jagged cut in his finger would have defeated him. He had never learned how to repair wounds, and now he came to think of it – particularly in light of his immediate plans – this seemed a serious flaw in his magical education.**

"You won't learn them until seventh year." Tonks said.

"Really?" Hermione asked. She was really interested in healing spells, and she couldn't wait until her seventh year.

**Making a mental note to ask Hermione how it was done,**

"Of course." Hermione sighed. "Why do you always ask me?"

"Because you are Hermione, the brightest witch of our age. You know a lot of spells we don't." Harry said, causing Hermione to blush.

**he used a large wad of toilet paper to mop up as much of the tea as he could before returning to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him.**

**Harry had spent the morning completely emptying his school trunk for the first time since he had packed it six years ago.**

Harry looked confused at this; he never cleaned his trunk. He always left it the way it was.

**At the start of the intervening school years, he had merely skimmed off the topmost three quarters of the contents and replaced or updated them, leaving a layer of general debris at the bottom – old quills, desiccated beetle eyes, single socks that no longer fit.**

"Lovely." Luna said. Everyone looked at her as if she was crazy, but she took no notice of them.

**Minutes previously, Harry had plunged his hand into this mulch, experienced a stabbing pain in the fourth finger of his right hand, and withdrawn it to see a lot of blood.**

"Harry," Ginny groaned. "What did you do?"

Harry just blushed and shrugged, he had no idea what had happened nor did he really want to know.

**He now proceeded a little more cautiously. Kneeling down beside the trunk again, he groped around in the bottom and, after retrieving an old badge that flickered feebly between SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY and POTTER STINKS,**

"How did that get in there?" Harry asked, "I hated those things the first time around. Why would I keep it?"

Ron blushed, "That might have been me when I thought you had put your own name in the cup. Sorry about that."

"It's fine, mate. I'll just throw it out now so I don't have to worry about it later." Harry laughed.

**a cracked and worn-out Sneakoscope, and a gold locket inside which a note signed R.A.B. had been hidden, he finally discovered the sharp edge that had done the damage.**

**He recognized it at once. It was a two-inch-long fragment of the enchanted mirror that his**

Percy froze, reading ahead. He gulped; he really didn't want to tear Harry's heart out right after his godfather was declared free. "Harry," He started. "I want you to know that we can fix this. We can change it."

Harry looked confused, "What are you talking about Percy?"

"Just stay calm, okay? You'll see." Percy sighed and he continued on hesitantly.

**dead godfather, Sirius,**

There was a dead silence. No one wanted to believe what they had just heard. The fun-loving guy who was sitting next to Remus would be dead within the next two years.

"Pe-Percy? C-can you reread that please?" Remus asked, tears in his eyes and his throat closing up.

Percy nodded and reread the words.

Harry started to cry, sobs racked his body as Ginny allowed him to ruin her shirt. She rubbed his back comfortingly. "Harry, it's all right, we're not going to let anything happen to Sirius. I promise." She said over and over again.

Sirius finally snapped out of his frozen state and went to help Ginny comfort Harry, "It's going to be okay Harry. I won't let anything happen to myself, OK?" Harry nodded but continued to cry. He couldn't believe that he had lost so many people in the course of his life, his mum, his dad, Cedric, his grandparents, Sirius… how many more of his loved ones would die? How many would die because of him?

_If anything happens to Ginny, Hermione, or Ron—any of the Weasley family for that matter—I don't know what I'll do._Harry thought. Sirius nodded for Percy to continue.

**had given him. Harry laid it aside and felt cautiously around the trunk for the rest, but nothing more remained of his godfather's last gift except powdered glass, which clung to the deepest layer of debris like glittering grit.**

**Harry sat up and examined the jagged piece on which he had cut himself, seeing nothing but his own bright green eye reflected back at him. Then he placed the fragment on top of that morning's Daily prophet, which lay unread on the bed, and attempted to stem the sudden upsurge of bitter memories, the stabs of regret and of longing the discovery of the broken mirror had occasioned, by attacking the rest of the rubbish in the trunk.**

"I-I guess that's a good way to forget things." Hermione muttered, "By cleaning. I study or read. And apparently Ronald eats."

"Ye-Hey!" Ron yelled, causing everyone to chuckle or laugh.

"Well, it is true, mate." Harry admitted with a watery chuckle.

"Very true, brother," chimed in George.

"I believe you ate everything in the kitchen when your teddy turned into a spider." Fred chuckled.

"Yeah, you remember because it was_your fault_that it turned into a spider in the first place!" Ron exclaimed. That caused everyone to laugh, and Dumbledore and Fudge to chuckle.

**It took another hour to empty it completely, throw away the useless items, and sort the remainder in piles according to whether or not he would need them from now on. His school and Quidditch robes, cauldron, parchment, quills, and most of his textbooks were piled in a corner, to be left behind.**

Harry looked confused, "Why am I leaving them there? Aren't I going back for my last year?" He asked.

"I'm not sure." Dumbledore said, looking confused as well. "However, I am sure that we will find out soon."

**He wondered what his aunt and uncle would do with them; burn them in the dead of night, probably, as if they were evidence of some dreadful crime.**

The women looked angry at that. They had better not burn Harry's things. They belonged to _him_, not to his family (if you could call them that).

**His Muggle clothing, Invisibility Cloak, potion-making kit, certain books, the photograph album Hagrid had once given him, a stack of letters, and his wand had been repacked into an old rucksack. In a front pocket were the Marauder's Map and the locket with the note signed R.A.B. inside it. The locket was accorded this place of honor not because it was valuable – in all usual senses it was worthless– but because of what it had cost to attain it.**

"I wonder what it cost." Harry said.

"Well, knowing you," Ginny started, "it was most likely a life. You hate it when people die and you do all that you can to avenge them."

Harry chuckled dryly, "You're right. I guess that's what it cost, but I wonder whose life was taken?"

**This left a sizable stack of newspapers sitting on his desk beside his snowy owl, Hedwig: one for each of the days Harry had spent at Privet Drive this summer.**

**He got up off the floor, stretched, and moved across to his desk. Hedwig made no movement as he began to flick through newspapers, throwing them into the rubbish pile one by one. The owl was asleep or else faking; she was angry with Harry about the limited amount of time she was allowed out of her cage at the moment.**

"She's always angry with me for that." Harry chuckled. "But she needs to learn that it's not my idea."

"They don't let Hedwig out?" Hermione asked outraged.

"Erm…I let her out at night when they don't know. Fred and George taught me how to pick locks." Harry admitted.

Ginny and Hermione looked really angry. They loved Hedwig. She was adorable and intelligent."Harry, I love your owl." Ginny said. Hermione nodded in agreement.

"She does have a certain charm." Harry admitted with a smile.

**As he neared the bottom of the pile of newspapers, Harry slowed down, searching for one particular issue that he knew had arrived shortly after he had returned to Privet Drive for the summer; he remembered that there had been a small mention on the front about the resignation of Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts.**

"Yeah, because Voldemort killed her." Bill said. Everyone but Harry, Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, Bill, and the two Marauders flinched at the name.

"Oh, COME ON! It's JUST A NAME!" Harry yelled.

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself." Dumbledore said, causing Harry to nod.

**At last he found it. Turning to page ten, he sank into his desk chair and reread the article he had been looking for.**

Percy paused again._Why, oh why, did I get this chapter?_He asked himself._I really don't want to read this; maybe if I ask them not to interrupt the remembrance I can get through it quicker._

"What's taking so long, Perce?" George asked in a babyish tone.

Percy sighed, "I'm going to read the remembrance. I don't want to read it in the first place, so please don't interrupt me." Everyone looked at him for a moment and then nodded.

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE REMEMBERED**

Everyone gasped. Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione had tears in their eyes. Dumbledore couldn't die! They would find a way to fix this!

**By Elphias Doge**

**I met Albus Dumbledore at the age of eleven, on our first day at Hogwarts. Our mutual attraction was undoubtedly due to the fact that we both felt ourselves to be outsiders. I had contracted dragon pox shortly before arriving at school, and whileI was no longer contagious, my pock-marked visage and greenish hue did not encourage many to approach me. For his part, Albus had arrived at Hogwarts under the burden of unwanted notoriety. Scarcely a year previously, his father, Percival, had been convicted of a savage and well-publicized attack upon three young Muggles.**

**Albus never attempted to deny that his father (who was to die in Azkaban) had committed this crime; on the contrary, when I plucked up courage to ask him, he assured me that he knew his father to be guilty. Beyond that, Dumbledore refused to speak of the sad business, though many attempted to make him do so. Some, indeed, were disposed to praise his father's action and assumed that Albus too was a Muggle-hater. They could not have been more mistaken: As anybody who knew Albus would attest, he never revealed the remotest anti-Muggle tendency. Indeed, his determined support for Muggle rights gained him many enemies in subsequent years.**

Everyone nodded throughout the paragraph. Dumbledore didn't hate muggles. He advocated for them, and he always treated them with kindness.

**In a matter of months, however, Albus's own fame had begun to eclipse that of his father. By the end of his first year he would never again be known as the son of a Muggle-hater, but as nothing more or less than the most brilliant student ever seen at the school. Those of us who were privileged to be his friends benefited from his example, not to mention his help and encouragement, with which he was always generous. He confessed to me later in life that he knew even then that his greatest pleasure lay in teaching.**

They were nodding vigorously now. Sirius mumbled to himself, "He was the best bloody teacher in the whole bloody school."

**He not only won every prize of note that the school offered, he was soon in regular correspondence with the most notable magical names of the day, including Nicolas Flamel, the celebrated alchemist; Bathilda Bagshot, the noted historian;and Adalbert Waffling, the magical theoretician. Several of his papers found their way into learned publications such as Transfiguration Today, Challenges in Charming, and The Practical Potioneer. Dumbledore's future career seemed likely to be meteoric, and the only question that remained was when he would become Minister of Magic. Though it was often predicted in later years that he was on the point of taking the job, however, he never had Ministerial ambitions.**

Dumbledore nodded, he never wanted that power. He knew that power would go to his head, and that would not help the community. He had just enough power in the school he loved and would never leave.

**Three years after we had started at Hogwarts, Albus's brother, Aberforth, arrived at school. They were not alike: Aberforth was never bookish and, unlike Albus, preferred to settle arguments by dueling rather than through reasoned discussion.**

Harry looked confused,_Dumbledore had a brother? Why didn't I know this?_

**However, it is quite wrong to suggest, as some have, that the brothers were not friends. They rubbed along as comfortably as two such different boys could do. In fairness to Aberforth, it must be admitted that living in Albus's shadow cannot have been an altogether comfortable experience. Being continually outshone was an occupational hazard of being his friend and cannot have been any more pleasurable as a brother. When Albus and I left Hogwarts we intended to take the then-traditional tour of the world together, visiting and observing foreign wizards, before pursuing our separate careers. However, tragedy intervened. On the very eve of our trip, Albus's mother, Kendra, died, leavingAlbus the head, and sole breadwinner, of the family. I postponed my departure long enough to pay my respects at Kendra's funeral, then left for what was now to be a solitary journey. With a younger brother and sister to care for, and little gold left to them, there could no longer be any question of Albus accompanying me.**

Everyone looked shocked. They did not know that Dumbledore's mother died so soon after he finished school.

Dumbledore looked saddened; his mother had died because of Ariana's uncontrollable magic. Then Ariana died at the hand of either himself, Aberforth, or Gellert.

**That was the period of our lives when we had least contact. I wrote to Albus, describing, perhaps insensitively, the wonders of my journey, from narrow escapes from chimaeras in Greece to the experiments of the Egyptian alchemists. His letters told me little of his day-to-day life, which I guessed to be frustratingly dull for such a brilliant wizard. Immersed in my own experiences, it was with horror that I heard, toward the end of my year's travels, that another tragedy had struck the Dumbledores: the death of his sister, Ariana.**

Everyone felt sad and, and they looked down in respect to Dumbledore's sister._Am I the only one to not know that Dumbledore had a brother and a sister?_Harry wondered.

**Though Ariana had been in poor health for a long time, the blow, coming so soon after the loss of their mother, had a profound effect on both of her brothers. All those closest to Albus – and I count myself one of that lucky number – agree that Ariana's death, and Albus's feeling of personal responsibility for it (though, of course, he was guiltless), left their mark upon him forevermore.**

There was no twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes now; he truly looked his age, his mouth in a frown, and his face devoid of any color.

**I returned home to find a young man who had experienced a much older person's suffering. Albus was more reserved than before, and much less light-hearted. To add to his misery, the loss of Ariana had led, not to a renewed closeness between Albus and Aberforth, but to an estrangement. (In time this would lift – in later years they reestablished, if not a close relationship, then certainly a cordial one.) However, he rarely spoke of his parents or of Ariana from then on, and his friends learned not to mention them.**

**Other quills will describe the triumphs of the following years. Dumbledore's innumerable contributions to the store of Wizarding knowledge, including his discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, will benefit generations to come, as will the wisdom he displayed in the many judgments while Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. They say, still, that no Wizarding duel ever matched that between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945.**

**Those who witnessed it have written of the terror and the awe they felt as they watched these two extraordinary wizards to battle.**

**Dumbledore's triumph, and its consequences for the Wizarding world, are considered a turning point in magical history to match the introduction of the International Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.**

**Albus Dumbledore was never proud or vain; he could find something to value in anyone, however apparently insignificant or wretched, and I believe that his early losses endowed him with great humanity and sympathy. I shall miss his fendship more than I can say, but my loss is nothing compared to the Wizarding world's. That he was the most inspiring and best loved of all Hogwarts headmasters cannot be in question. He died as he lived: working always for the greater good and, to his last hour, as willing to stretch out a hand to a small boy with dragon pox as he was on the day I met him.**

The words 'greater good' rang around Dumbledore's mind. He never wanted to hear that phrase again.

There was utter silence in the room. "That was the end of the article." Percy said in a gruff voice.

**Harry finished reading, but continued to gaze at the picture accompanying the obituary. Dumbledore was wearing his familiar, kindly smile, but as he peered over the top of his half-moon spectacles, he gave the impression, even in newsprint, of X-raying Harry, whose sadness mingled with a sense of humiliation.**

"His eyes always make me feel like he's seeing right through me." Ron said and then shuddered.

"That's what an X-ray is, Ron." Hermione explained in a sigh. But she understood what he meant, having felt the same way during the few times she had come into contact with the headmaster.

**He had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well, but ever since reading this obituary he had been forced to recognize that he had barely known him at all. Never once had he imagined Dumbledore's childhood or youth; it was as though he had sprung into being as Harry had known him, venerable and silver-haired and old.**

"I tink zat eez 'ow we all feel." Fleur said with a chuckle, Bill joining in.

**The idea of a teenage Dumbledore was simply odd, like trying to imagine a stupid Hermione or a friendly Blast-Ended Skrewt.**

"Zose tings were 'orrible!" Fleur exclaimed with a shudder.

"Yeah, they were." Harry agreed.

**He had never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past. No doubt it would have felt strange, impertinent even, but after all it had been common knowledge that Dumbledore had taken part in that legendary duel with Grindelwald, and Harry had not thought to ask Dumbledore what that had been like, nor about any of his other famous achievements. No, they had always discussed Harry, Harry's past, Harry's future, Harry's plans… and it seemed to Harry now, despite the fact that his future was so dangerous and so uncertain, that he had missed irreplaceable opportunities when he had failed to ask Dumbledore more about himself, even though the only personal question he had ever asked his headmaster was also the only one he suspected that Dumbledore had not answered honestly:**

**"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"**

**"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."**

"You were right. I did not answer honestly, but I do not wish to talk about my past at the moment." Dumbledore explained with a sigh. This was a hard chapter to go through.

**After several minutes' thought, Harry tore the obituary out of the Prophet, folded it carefully, and tucked it inside the first volume of Practical Defensive Magic and its Use against the Dark Arts. Then he threw the rest of the newspaper onto the rubbish pile and turned to face the room. It was much tidier. The only things left out of place were today's Daily Prophet, still lying on the bed, and on top of it, the piece of broken mirror.**

"When you get to come to my house I'll give you the mirror. That way you can talk to me anytime." Sirius said.

Harry smiled, "That sounds great."

**Harry moved across the room, slid the mirror fragment off today's Prophet, and unfolded the newspaper. He had merely glanced at the headline when he had taken the rolled-up paper from the delivery owl early that morning and thrown it aside, after noting that it said nothing about Voldemort. Harry was sure that the Ministry was leaning on the Prophet to suppress news about Voldemort.**

"That makes sense, since they are doing that now." Harry hissed. Fudge looked really scared for a moment but then smoothed out his face to look impassive.

**It was only now, therefore, that he saw what he had missed.**

**Across the bottom half of the front page a smaller headline was set over a picture of Dumbledore striding along, looking harried:**

Percy groaned, "Yet again, please no talking, though this one might be harder since it was written by Skeeter." Everyone groaned.

"Why does she still work there?" Harry asked.

"I'm not so sure myself." Fudge admitted.

**DUMBLEDORE– THE TRUTH AT LAST?**

**Coming next week, the shocking story of the flawed genius considered by many to be the greatest wizard of his generation. Striping away the popular image of serene, silver-bearded wisdom, Rita Skeeter reveals the disturbed childhood, the lawless youth, the life-long feuds, and the guilty secrets that Dumbledore carried to his grave, WHY was the man tipped to be the Minister of Magic content to remain a mere headmaster? WHAT was the real purpose of the secret organization known as the Order of the Phoenix? HOW did Dumbledore really meet his end?**

"I believe that's what we'd ALL like to know." Neville said. Luna nodded slowly.

**The answers to these and many more questions are explored in the explosive new biography, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, by Rita Skeeter, exclusively interviewed by Berry Braithwaite, page 13, ripped open the paper and found page thirteen.**

"Harry, you really shouldn't read that. It will only upset you." Hermione said. Harry just nodded; he had no idea what to say to that.

**The article was topped with a picture showing another familiar face: a woman wearing jeweled glasses with elaborately curled blonde hair, her teeth bared in what was clearly supposed to be a winning smile, wiggling her fingers up at him. Doing his best to ignore this nauseating image, Harry read on.**

**In person, Rita Skeeter is much warmer and softer than her famously ferocious quill-portraits might suggest.**

Everyone scoffed at that idea.

**Greeting me in the hallway of her cozy home, she leads me straight into the kitchen for a cup of tea, a slice of pound cake and, it goes without saying, a steaming vat of freshest gossip.**

**"Well, of course, Dumbledore is a biographer's dream," says Skeeter. "Such a long, full life. I'm sure my book will be the first of very, very many."**

**Skeeter was certainly quick off the mark. Her nine-hundred-page book was completed in a mere four weeks after Dumbledore's mysterious death in June. I ask her how she managed this superfast feat.**

**"Oh, when you've been a journalist as long as I have, working to a deadline is second nature. I knew that the Wizarding world was clamoring for the full story and I wanted to be the first to meet that need."**

**I mention the recent, widely publicized remarks of Elphias Doge, Special Advisor to the Wizengamot and longstanding friend of Albus Dumbledore's, that "Skeeter's book contains less fact than a Chocolate Frog card."Skeeter throws back her head and laughs.**

"That's true." Ron said, causing everyone to nod.

**"Darling Dodgy! I remember interviewing him a few years back about merpeople rights, bless him. Completely gaga, seemed to think we were sitting at the bottom of Lake Windermere, kept telling me to watch out for trout."**

**And yet Elphias Doge's accusations of inaccuracy have been echoed in many places. Does Skeeter really feel that four short weeks have been enough to gain a full picture of Dumbledore's long and extraordinary life?**

**"Oh, my dear," beams Skeeter, rapping me affectionately across the knuckles, "you know as well as I do how much information can be generated by a fat bag of Galleons, a refusal to hear the word 'no,' and a nice sharp Quick-Quotes Quill! People were queuing to dish the dirt on Dumbledore anyway. Not everyone thought he was so wonderful, you know – he trod on an awful lot of important toes.**

**But old Dodgy Doge can get off his high hippogriff, because I've had access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for, one who has never spoken in public before and who was close to Dumbledore during the most turbulent and disturbing phase of his youth."**

**The advance publicity for Skeeter's biography has certainly suggested that there will be shocks in store for those who believe Dumbledore to have led a blameless life.**

**What were the biggest surprises she uncovered, I ask?**

**"Now, come off it. Betty, I'm not giving away all the highlights before anybody's bought the book!" laughs Skeeter. "But I can promise that anybody who still thinks Dumbledore was white as his beard is in for a rude awakening! Let's just say that nobody hearing him rage against You-Know-Who would have dreamed that he dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth!**

Everyone looked angry at that. Dumbledore wouldn't do anything like that!

**And for a wizard who spent his later years pleading for tolerance, he wasn't exactly broad-minded when he was younger! Yes, Albus Dumbledore had an extremely murky past, not to mention that very fishy family, which he worked so hard to keep hushed up."**

**I ask whether Skeeter is referring to Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, whose conviction by the Wizengamot for misuse of magic caused a minor scandal fifteen years ago.**

**"Oh, Aberforth is just the tip of the dung heap," laughs Skeeter. "No, no, I'm talking about much worse than a brother with a fondness for fiddling about with goats, worse even than the Muggle-maiming father – Dumbledore couldn't keep either of them quiet anyway, they were both charged by the Wizengamot. No, it's the mother and the sister that intrigued me, and a little digging uncovered a positive nest of nastiness – but, as I say, you'll have to wait for chapters nine to twelve for full details. All I can say now is, it's no wonder Dumbledore never talked about how his nose got broken."**

Dumbledore looked upset at the mention of his broken nose.

**Family skeletons notwithstanding, does Skeeter deny the brilliance that led to Dumbledore's many magical discoveries?**

**"He had brains," she concedes, "although many now question whether he could really take full credit for all of his supposed achievements. As I reveal in chapter sixteen, Ivor Dillonsby claims he had already discovered eight uses of dragon's blood when Dumbledore 'borrowed' his papers."**

Dumbledore himself looked slightly angry at that accusation, but said nothing of it.

**But the importance of some of Dumbledore's achievements cannot, I venture, be denied. What of his famous defeat of Grindelwald?**

**"Oh, now, I'm glad you mentioned Grindelwald," says Skeeter with such a tantalizing smile. "I'm afraid those who go dewy-eyed over Dumbledore's spectacular victory must brace themselves for a bombshell – or perhaps a Dungbomb. Very dirty business indeed. All I'll say is, don't be so sure that there really was a spectacular duel of legend. After they've read my book, people may be forced to conclude that Grindelwald simply conjured a white handkerchief from the end of his wand and came quietly!"**

**Skeeter refuses to give any more away on this intriguing subject, so we turn instead to the relationship that will undoubtedly fascinate her readers more than any other.**

**"Oh yes," says Skeeter, nodding briskly, "I devote an entire chapter to the whole Potter-Dumbledore 's been called unhealthy, even sinister.**

"WHAT?" Harry finally asked, outraged.

"That can't be right." Hermione mused.

Dumbledore himself looked rather upset; he had always thought of Harry as a grandson. "Harry?" Dumbledore asked trying to get Harry's attention. "I promise we will have a meeting and talk about all of the things you wish to talk about, but I feel as though you are the grandson I never had. That is why I look out for you. Because I care about you." He explained.

Harry smiled at that, emotional, and said, "That's good sir, because I think of you as a grandfather myself." Dumbledore had the twinkle back in his eye, and Percy went back to the book.

**Again, your readers will have to buy my book for the whole story, but there is no question that Dumbledore took an unnatural interest in Potter from the word go. Whether that was really in the boy's best interests– well, we'll see. It's certainly an open secret that Potter has had a most troubled adolescence."**

"That's not his fault!"Ginny and Hermione said together angrily. "It's not his fault he has a mad psychopath killer after him!" Ginny said angrily. Harry put his arm around Ginny and pulled her into a hug.

**I ask whether Skeeter is still in touch with Harry Potter, whom she so famously interviewed last year: a breakthrough piece in which Potter spoke exclusively of his conviction that You-Know-Who had returned.**

"That's because he did come back." Harry explained calmly.

**"Oh, yes, we've developed a closer bond," says Skeeter. "Poor Potter has few real friends, and we met at one of the most testing moments of his life – the Triwizard Tournament. I am probably one of the only people alive who can say that they know the real Harry Potter."**

"Zat eez not true!" Fleur said. "You are a friend of mine 'Arry." She explained.

"I think of you as a friend as well." Harry said with a smile. Draco looked as though he was about to puke at all of the mushiness going around in the room.

**Which leads us neatly to the many rumors still circulating about Dumbledore's final hours. Does Skeeter believe that Potter was there when Dumbledore died?**

Harry and Dumbledore blanched. Dumbledore didn't want Harry to see him die after everything the poor boy had had to go through.

**"Well, I don't want to say too much – it's all in the book – but eyewitnesses inside Hogwarts castle saw Potter running away from the scene moments after Dumbledore fell, jumped, or was pushed.**

"What?" Harry asked in a weak voice. "Is she trying to say that I-I mi-might have ki-killed you?"

"That sounds like what she is trying to do, but I don't believe it, Harry." Dumbledore said.

"If you were running from the castle, you would be chasing the one who did it." Remus explained.

"Yeah, THAT sounds like the Harry Potter I know." Tonks said with a smile.

**Potter later gave evidence against Severus Snape, a man against whom he has a notorious grudge.**

Sirius tried to get up again, but the sticking charm was still on him. Harry looked at him. "He didn't do anything yet. Even if he did kill Dumbledore it's_in the future_. We can fix this. He doesn't have to do it. Why do you think my daughter brought him here?" Sirius huffed; he knew his godson was right, and he was going to have to listen, but that didn't mean he had to actually _like_Snape, even if he did turn out to be on their side.

**Is everything as it seems? That is for the Wizarding community to decide– once they've read my book."**

**On that intriguing note, I take my leave. There can be no doubt that Skeeter has quilled an instant bestseller. Dumbledore's legion of admirers, meanwhile, may well be trembling at what is soon to emerge about their hero.**

Everyone was grumbling at the end of the paragraph, but Percy continued on before they could say anything.

**Harry reached the bottom of the article, but continued to stare blankly at the page. Revulsion and fury rose in him like vomit; he balled up the newspaper and threw it, with all his force, at the wall, where it joined the rest of the rubbish heaped around his overflowing bin.**

**He began to stride blindly around the room, opening empty drawers and picking up books only to replace them on the same piles, barely conscious of what he was doing, as random phrases from Rita's article echoed in his head: An entire chapter to the whole Potter-Dumbledore relationship ... It's been called unhealthy, even sinister ... He dabbled in the Dark Arts himself in his youth ... I've had access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for...**

"You shouldn't let these things get to you Harry." Ginny said placing her head on Harry's chest.

"I'll try not to." Harry said, sighing in contentment.

**"Lies!" Harry bellowed, and through the window he saw the next-door neighbor, who had paused to restart his lawn mower, look up nervously.**

**Harry sat down hard on the bed. The broken bit of mirror danced away from him; he picked it up and turned it over in his fingers, thinking, thinking of Dumbledore and the lies with which Rita Skeeter was defaming him ...**

"Of course that was what he was worrying about." Severus muttered to himself.

**A flash of brightest blue. Harry froze, his cut finger slipping on the jagged edge of the mirror again. He had imagined it, he must have done. He glanced over his shoulder, but the wall was a sickly peach color of Aunt Petunia's choosing: There was nothing blue there for the mirror to reflect. He peered into the mirror fragment again, and saw nothing but his own bright green eye looking back at him.**

"OK, that was weird, mate." Ron said.

"Yeah, that really was." Harry admitted, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

**He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had been thinking of his dead headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.**

Silent tears were going down Harry's face at that; Dumbledore_was_like his grandfather, and it would kill him if he lost another family member. Everyone in that room (except Snape and Fudge) was family to him.

"Who would like to read next?" Percy asked.

"I will."Hermione said.


	3. Chapter 3 The Dursleys Departing

**Yay! New Chapter! I really want to thank my beta AmyRose512 for helping make my story better! I wanted to let everyone know that I will not have access to the internet until Monday night so my updates will be slow, minimal, or not at all until Tuesday when I hope I will have a few chapters ready to go…I'll be going to see the Notre Dame game! Go Notre Dame!**

**Disclaimer:****I sadly do not own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling does!**

"After the next chapter, let us all have dinner and go to bed. Miss Weasley and Mr. Black can take care of Harry." Dumbledore said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

"Okay." Ron said, "Can we read now?"

"Oh, no!" Fred exclaimed.

"The world is ending!" George said.

"Ron wants to read!" They said together, causing everyone to laugh.

"Just get on with it." Ron grumbled.

**"The Dursleys Departing,"**Hermione read.

**The sound of the front door slamming echoed up the stairs and a voice roared, "Oh! You!"Sixteen years of being addressed thus left Harry in no doubt when his uncle was calling, nevertheless, he did not immediately respond.**

The twinkle in Dumbledore's eye went out.

"Do they even know your name?" Ginny asked angrily.

"Erm…I don't really know." Harry admitted, looking down.

**He was still at the narrow fragment in which, for a split second, he had thought he saw Dumbledore's eye. It was not until his uncle bellowed, "BOY!" that Harry got slowly out of bed and headed for the bedroom door, pausing to add the piece of broken mirror to the rucksack filled with things he would be taking with him**.

"Where am I going?" Harry asked again.

"I'm sure we will find out soon, Harry." Dumbledore said. Harry just nodded and hoped for the best.

"**You took you time!" roared Vernon Dursley when Harry appeared at the top of the stairs, "Get down here. I want a word!"**

"If you keep treating him like that, no wonder he took his time." Hermione huffed.

"He's not a warbleganger." Luna said dreamily.

**Harry strolled downstairs, his hands deep in his pants pockets. When he searched the living room he found all three Dursleys. They were dressed for packing; Uncle Vernon in an old ripped-up jacket and Dudley, Harry's, large, blond, muscular cousin, in his leather jacket.**

"I wonder where they're going." Neville said.

"I really don't know. They normally leave me at home when they go somewhere. They lock me in my room so I can't steal food." Harry admitted and suddenly wished he didn't.

"They_what_?" Sirius asked, outraged.

"Erm…never mind." He mumbled, "Please continue, Hermione." Harry pleaded.

"**Yes?" asked Harry.**

"**Sit down!" said Uncle Vernon. Harry raised his eyebrows. "Please!" added Uncle Vernon, wincing slightly as though the word was sharp in his throat.**

"I hope that hurt." Ron mumbled.

"Professor Dumbledore, does he really have to go back to that awful house?" Bill asked.

"For right now, I'm sad to say yes." Dumbledore said sadly, though he wondered if that really was the right choice. Maybe if they ask Harry if he wants to live at Hogwarts with Sirius he would be safe enough…he had a lot of thinking to do.

**Harry sat. He though he knew what was coming. His uncle began to pace up and down, Aunt Petunia and Dudley, following his movement with anxious expressions. Finally, his large purple face crumpled with concentration. Uncle Vernon stopped in front of Harry and spoke.**

**"I've changed my mind," he said.**

"What a surprise." Harry said. Hermione chuckled at him."What?" He asked.

"Just listen." She chuckled.

**"What a surprise," said Harry.**

"I guess you don't change so much, Harry." Neville snickered.

"I can't wait to see you in the story and we'll see if I can say the same." Harry said. Neville just chuckled.

**"Don't you take that tone—" began Aunt Petunia in a shrill voice, but Vernon Dursley waved her down.**

**"It's all a lot of claptrap," said Uncle Vernon, glaring at Harry with piggy little eyes. "I've decided I don't believe a word of it. We're staying put, we're not going anywhere."**

"Now_that_sounds like Uncle Vernon." Harry said. "Never believes in anything he can't see." Ginny frowned,_what did he mean by that?_

**Harry looked up at his uncle and felt a mixture of exasperation and amusement. Vernon Dursley had been changing his mind every twenty four hours for the past four weeks, packing and unpacking and repacking the car with every change of heart.**

**Harry's favorite moment had been the one when Uncle Vernon, unaware the Dudley had added his dumbbells to his case since the last time it been repacked, had attempted to hoist it back into the boot and collapsed with a yelp of pain and much swearing.**

Everyone (with the exception of Fudge, Snape, and Draco) laughed at that. Dumbledore just chuckled, a twinkle in his eye.

"**According to you," Vernon Dursley said, now resuming his pacing up and down the living room, "we – Petunia, Dudley, and I – are in danger. From – from –"**

"**Some of 'my lot' right?" said Harry**

"What does he mean by that?" Tonks asked.

"He doesn't like witches and wizards." Harry explained, "He's made my life a living hell for as long as I can remember, even_before_I knew that I was a wizard."

"You mean you didn't know you were a wizard until you were eleven?" Sirius asked.

"Erm…yeah?" He said, but it came out as a question. Dumbledore looked upset. Petunia was supposed to tell Harry about his heritage, not keep it from him.

**"Well I don't believe it," repeated Uncle Vernon, coming to a halt in front of Harry again. "I was awake half the night thinking it all over, and I believe it's a plot to get the house."**

"Is he serious?" Harry asked. "Why would I want that house? All of the happy memories?"

"Maybe the warblegangers will get him." Luna suggested in her normal dreamy voice.

**"The house?" repeated Harry. "What house?"**

**"This house!" shrieked Uncle Vernon, the vein his forehead starting to pulse. "Our house! House prices are skyrocketing around here! You want us out of the way and then you're going to do a bit of hocus pocus and before we know it the deeds will be in your name and –"**

"I really hope he's not serious." Remus said.

"He's not Sirius, I am!" Sirius said happily.

"Padfoot, that wasn't funny the first time, and it isn't funny now." Remus sighed.

"When did he first try the joke?" Bill asked.

"First year when we all became friends." Sirius said, "And it is too still funny!" He huffed.

**"Are you out of your mind?" demanded Harry. "A plot to get this house? Are you actually as stupid as you look?"**

"I would say-" George started.

"Yes, he did lose his mind-" Fred continued.

"But he lost it a long time ago." They finished together causing everyone to laugh at the truth of the statement.

**"Don't you dare -!" squealed Aunt Petunia, but again Vernon waved her down. Slights on his personal appearance were it seemed as nothing to the danger he had spotted.**

**"Just in case you've forgotten," said Harry, "I've already got a house my godfather left me one. So why would I want this one? All the happy memories?"**

"So I left you my house?" Sirius said to himself. "Good. But now you'll have to deal with Kreacher. Sorry about that."

"I'm just shocked that you would leave me your house in the first place." Harry said stunned.

"Of course I would. The only other closest relatives I have are Dora," Sirius started.

"Don't call me Dora!" Tonks yelled.

"Then why do you let Moony call you Dora?" Sirius asked mocking a hurt voice.

"That…would be none of your business." Tonks muttered.

"_Anyway_, the closest relatives I have are_Tonks_and that little git in training over there." He said pointing to Draco. Draco looked shocked.

"So_I_should inherit Black manor." He said pompously.

"Yeah, but you won't." Sirius said, "It goes to my_godson_." Harry snorted at Draco's indignant look.

**There was silence. Harry thought he had rather impressed his uncle with this argument.**

**"You claim," said Uncle Vernon, starting to pace yet again, "that this Lord Thing –"**

**"—Voldemort," said Harry impatiently, "and we've been through this about a hundred times already. This isn't a claim, it's fact. Dumbledore told you last year, and Kingsley and Mr. Weasley –"**

**Vernon Dursley hunched his shoulders angrily, and Harry guessed that his uncle was attempting to ward off recollections of the unannounced visit, a few days into Harry's summer holidays, of two fully grown wizards. The arrival on the doorstep of Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley had come as a most unpleasant shock to the Dursleys. Harry had to admit, however that as Mr. Weasley had once demolished half of the living room, his reappearance could not have been expected to delight Uncle Vernon.**

"Yeah, that was amazing." Ron said.

"We really must-" Fred started.

"Do that-" George continued.

"Again." They finished.

"I wouldn't complain if you were to come and pick me up by Floo again." Harry chuckled.

**"—Kingsley and Mr. Weasley explained it all as well," Harry pressed on remorselessly, "Once I'm seventeen, the protective charm that keeps me safe will break, and that exposes you as well as me. The Order is sure Voldemort will target you, whether to torture you to try and find out where I am, or because he thinks by holding you hostage I'd come and try to rescue you."**

**Uncle Vernon's and Harry's eyes met. Harry was sure that in that instant they were both wondering the same thing.**

Hermione sighed, "Harry I know you, you would save them without a second thought. I believe you would save Malfoy if he was in danger."

"Let's bet on that!" Sirius said. "I bet Harry doesn't save Malfoy if he's in danger."

"I'd have to disagree with you there, Padfoot. I'd say Harry _would_save him." Remus said.

"Five galleons?" Sirius asked.

"Five galleons." Remus agreed shaking Sirius' hand with his free hand.

**Then Uncle Vernon walked on and Harry resumed, "You've got to go into hiding and the Order wants to help. You're being offered serious protection, the best there is."**

**Uncle Vernon said nothing but continued to pace up and down. Outside the sun hung low over the privet hedges. The next door neighbor's lawn mower stalled again.**

**"I thought there was a Ministry of Magic?" asked Vernon Dursley abruptly.**

"It's been infiltrated." Neville nodded, "They won't help you."

Fudge sighed, thinking about the loss of his beloved Ministry.

**"There is," said Harry, surprised.**

**"Well, then, why can't they protect us? It seems to me that, as innocent victims, guilty of nothing more than harboring a marked man, we ought to qualify for government protection!"**

**Harry laughed; he could not help himself. It was so very typical of his uncle to put his hopes in the establishment, even within this world that he despised and mistrusted."You heard what Mr. Weasley and Kingsley said," Harry replied."We think the Ministry has been infiltrated."**

"That's because it has been." Bill said sadly.

**Uncle Vernon strode back to the fireplace and back breathing so strongly that his great black mustache rippled his face still purple with concentration.**

**"All right," he said. Stopping in front of Harry get again. "All right, let's say for the sake of argument we accept this protection. I still don't see why we can't have that Kingsley bloke."**

**Harry managed not to roll his eyes, but with difficulty. This question had also been addressed half a dozen times."As I've told you," he said through gritted teeth, "Kingsley is protecting the Mug – I mean, your Prime Minister."**

**"Exactly– he's the best!" said Uncle Vernon, pointing at the blank television screen. The Dursleys had spotted Kingsley on the news, walking along the Muggle Prime Minister as he visited a hospital. This, and the fact that Kingsley had mastered the knack of dressing like a Muggle, not to mention a certain reassuring something in his slow, deep voice, had caused the Dursleys to take to Kingsley in a way that they had certainly not done with any other wizard, although it was true that they had never seen him with earring in.**

"Professor?" Harry asked Dumbledore. "Do you think that if Kingsley ever meets my Aunt and Uncle that we can ask him to wear his earring?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "I think we can manage that."

**"Well, he's taken," said Harry. "But Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle are more than up to the job –"**

**"If we'd even seen CVs…" began Uncle Vernon, but Harry lost patience. Getting to his feet, he advanced on his uncle, now pointing at the TV set himself.**

**"These accidents aren't accidents – the crashed and explosions and derailments and whatever else has happened since we last watched the news. People are disappearing and dying and he's behind it –Voldemort. I've told you this over and over again, he kills Muggles for fun. Even the fogs – they're caused by dementors, and if you can't remember what they are, ask your son!"**

"What are we going to do about the Dementors?" Fudge wondered.

"I'm sure we'll think of something Cornelius." Dumbledore said, trying to comfort the man.

**Dudley's hands jerked upward to tower his mouth. With his parents' and Harry's eyes upon him, he slowly lowered them again and asked, "There are… more of them?"**

Harry looked confused, "Dudley knows what Dementors are?"

Hermione and Ron shrugged.

**"More?" laughed Harry. "More than the two that attacked us, you mean? Of course there are hundreds, maybe thousands by this time, seeing as they feed off fear and despair—"**

"Wait—Did you say what I think you said?" Harry asked.

"Yes, it says that you and Dudley were attacked by Dementors." Hermione said.

"Great." Harry groaned. "I guess I'd better be on the lookout at Privet Drive now."

"We'll take care of it Harry." said Sirius.

**"All right, all right," blustered Vernon Dursley. "You've made your point –"**

**"I hope so," said Harry, "because once I'm seventeen, all of them – Death Eaters, Dementors, maybe even Inferi – which means dead bodies enchanted by a Dark wizard – will be able to find you and will certainly attack you. And if you remember the last time you tried to outrun wizards, I think you'll agree you need help."**

**There was a brief silence in which the distant echo of Hagrid smashing down a wooden front door seemed to reverberate through the intervening years.**

"What does he mean by zat?" Fleur asked.

"In my first year, Hagrid had to come and give me my letter because Uncle Vernon kept destroying them. So we ran from the letters but no matter where we went the letters followed. That's what he means." Harry explained with a chuckle.

**Aunt Petunia was looking at Uncle Vernon; Dudley was staring at Harry. Finally Uncle Vernon blurted out, "But what about my work? What about Dudley's school? I don't suppose those things matter to a bunch of layabout wizards –"**

**"Don't you understand?" shouted Harry. "They will torture and kill you like they did my parents!"**

"I think that will work." Luna said.

"Yeah, mate; you really know how to work people don't you?" Ron asked.

"When I really need to, yes I can." Harry admitted.

**"Dad," said Dudley in a loud voice, "Dad – I'm going with these Order people."**

**"Dudley," said Harry, "for the first time in your life, you're talking sense."**

"That sounds like he had a bad childhood." Ginny said.

"I had a bad childhood; actually, I never really _had_a childhood. Dudley was the one who was spoiled. I never received any birthday or Christmas presents, and when I got better grades than Dudley, I got yelled at." Harry explained; he didn't mention the cupboard and he hoped to Merlin that it wouldn't be in the book either.

**He knew the battle was won. If Dudley was frightened enough to accept the Order's help, his parents would accompany him. There could be no question of being separated from their Duddykins.**

"Duddykins?" Fred and George asked together, causing them to laugh hysterically. That caused Sirius and Remus to laugh along with them.

**Harry glanced at the carriage clock on the mantelpiece.**

**"They'll be here in about five minutes, he said, and when none of the Dursleys replied, he left the room. The prospect of parting—probably forever–**

"Please, I _really_don't want to go back there." Harry groaned.

Dumbledore felt terrible for placing Harry in that home. He was going to fix this. Harry was never going to go back to the Dursley's if he could help it. There had to be another way to protect him from Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

**from his aunt, uncle, and cousin was one that he was able to contemplate quite cheerfully but there was nevertheless a certain awkwardness in the air. What did you say to one another at the end of sixteen years' solid dislike?**

Everyone frowned at that. No one should hate their relatives.

**Back in his bedroom, Harry fiddled aimlessly with his rucksack then poked a couple of owl nuts through the bats of Hedwig's cage. They fell with dull thuds to the bottom where she ignored them.**

Ginny giggled, "Harry, your owl is adorable."

"I know." Harry chuckled, "I don't know what I'd do without her."

**"We're leaving soon, really soon," Harry told her. "And then you'll be able to fly again."**

**The doorbell rang. Harry hesitated, then headed back out of his room and downstairs. It was too much to expect Hestia and Dedalus to cope with the Dursleys on their own.**

"Yeah, I wonder how Dedalus would deal with them if he was on his own." Bill said.

"Probably not well, knowing the Dursley's." Harry said with a frown.

**"Harry Potter!" squeaked an excited voice, the moment Harry had opened the door; a small man in a mauve top hat that was sweeping him a deep bow. "An honor as ever!"**

Harry grimaced. He hated being reminded of his fame.

Snape saw Harry's expression._The boy looks displeased. Could it be that he's not like his father in this regard, and that he doesn't like his fame? Maybe Lily really is in there somewhere._He vowed to pay more attention to how Harry thought and behaved.

**"Thanks, Dedalus," said Harry, bestowing a small and embarrassed smile upon the dark haired Hestia. "It's really good of you to do this… They're through here, my aunt and uncle and cousin…"**

**"Good day to you, Harry Potter's relatives!" said Dedalus happily striding into the living room.**

"I bet they loved that, eh Moony?" Sirius snickered.

"Yeah, Padfoot. I bet they did." Remus chuckled along.

**The Dursleys did not look at all happy to be addressed thus; Harry half expected another change of mind. Dudley shrank neared to his mother at the sight of the witch and wizard.**

**"I see you are packed and ready. Excellent! The plan, as Harry has told you, is a simple one," said Dedalus, pulling an immense pocket watch out of his waistcoat and examining it. "We shall be leaving before Harry does. Due to the danger of using magic in your house –Harry being still underage it could provide the Ministry with an excuse to arrest him –we shall be driving, say, ten miles or so before Disapparating to the safe location we have picked out for you. You know how to drive, I take it?" He asked Uncle Vernon politely.**

"Uncle Vernon is not going to like that." Harry chuckled.

"Why not?" Ron asked.

"Most Muggles know how to drive. That is just going to feed into my Uncle believing that wizards are freaks." Harry explained, and everyone scowled at the thought of being referred to as "freaks."

**"Know how to –? Of course I ruddy well know how to drive!" spluttered Uncle Vernon.**

**"Very clever of you, sir, very clever. I personally would be utterly bamboozled by all those buttons and knobs," said Dedalus. He was clearly under the impression that he was flattering Vernon Dursley, who was visibly losing confidence in the plan with every word Dedalus spoke.**

**"Can't even drive," he muttered under his breath, his mustache rippling indignantly, but fortunately neither Dedalus nor Hestia seemed to hear him.**

"I don't think Dedalus would have minded." Dumbledore said. "However, Hestia might have been a little insulted." He chuckled.

**"You, Harry," Dedalus continued, "will wait here for your guard. There has been a little change in the arrangements –"**

"**What d'you mean?" said Harry at once. "I thought Mad-Eye was going to come and take me by Side Along-Apparition?"**

"That's because of the Ministry, right?" Ginny asked worried for Harry again.

"You are correct, Miss Weasley." Dumbledore said.

**"Can't do it," said Hestia tersely, "Mad-Eye will explain."**

**The Dursleys, who had listened to all of this with looks of utter incomprehension on their faces, jumped as a loud voice screeched, "Hurry up!" Harry looked all around the room before realizing the voice had issued from Dedalus's pocket watch.**

"That is bloody weird." Harry admitted.

"It is pretty weird." Hermione agreed.

**"Quite right, were operating to a very tight schedule," said Dedalus nodding at his watch and tucking it back into his waist coat. "We are attempting to time your departure from the house with your family's Disapparition, Harry thus the charm breaks the moment you all head for safety." He turned to the Dursleys, "Well, are we all packed and ready to go?"None of them answered him. Uncle Vernon was still staring appalled at the bulge in Dedalus's waistcoat pocket.**

**"Perhaps we should wait outside in the hall, Dedalus," murmured Hestia. She clearly felt that it would be tactless for them to remain the room while Harry and the Dursleys exchanged loving, possibly tearful farewells.**

"That's not going to happen." Harry scoffed.

**"There's no need," Harry muttered, but Uncle Vernon made any further explanation unnecessary by saying loudly,"Well, this is good-bye then boy."He swung his right arm upward to shake Harry's hand, but at the last moment seemed unable to face it, and merely closed his fist and began swinging it backward and forward like a metronome.**

"He doesn't even call you your name for the last time." Luna huffed not sounding like herself at all. Harry and Ron exchanged a look, taken aback by Luna's unusually normal tone of voice.

**"Ready, Duddy?" asked Petunia, fussily checking the clasp of her handbag so as to avoid looking at Harry altogether.**

Ginny, Luna, and Hermione huffed.

**Dudley did not answer but stood there with his mouth slightly ajar, reminding Harry a little of the giant, Grawp."Come along, then," said Uncle Vernon.**

**He had already reached the living room door when Dudley mumbled, "I don't understand."**

"What doesn't he understand?" Neville asked.

Harry shrugged, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I really don't know."

**"What don't you understand, popkin?" asked Petunia looking up at her son.**

**Dudley raised a large, hamlike hand to point at Harry."Why isn't he coming with us?**

"Wait, what?" Harry asked, "Where did that come from?"

"I expect that young Mr. Dursley has felt this way since the Dementor attack that was mentioned." Dumbledore said, "I suspect that when the Dementors showed Dudley his worst fear (most likely that he would be treated the same way he treats other people, especially you), he realized that he should treat you better." Harry sat and just tried to let that sink in.

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia froze when they stood staring at Dudley as though he had just expressed a desire to become a ballerina.**

Everyone, including Snape, Draco, Fudge, and Dumbledore, snickered at that.

**"What?" said Uncle Vernon loudly.**

**"Why isn't he coming too?" asked Dudley.**

**"Well, he—doesn't want to," said Uncle Vernon, turning to glare at Harry and adding, "You don't want to, do you?"**

"Not in the slightest." Harry said with a grimace. Hermione chuckled again.

**"Not in the slightest," said Harry.**

"You're really starting to scare me, mate." Ron chuckled.

"No, he just knows himself." Sirius said with a smirk.

**"There you are," Uncle Vernon told Dudley. "Now come on we're off."**

**He marched out of the room. They heard the front door open, but Dudley did not move and after a few faltering steps Aunt Petunia stopped too.**

**"What now?" barked Uncle Vernon, reappearing in the doorway.**

**It seemed that Dudley was struggling with concepts too difficult to put into words. After several moments of apparently painful internal struggle he said, "But where's he going to go?"**

"Does he really care?" Harry asked, surprised.

"I can't believe it either." Ginny said, shocked.

**Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked at each other. It was clear that Dudley was frightening them. Hestia Jones broke the silence.**

**"But…surely you know where your nephew is going?" she asked looking bewildered.**

**"Certainly we know," said Vernon Dursley. "He's off with some of your lot, isn't he? Right, Dudley, let's get in the car, you heard the man, we're in a hurry."Again, Vernon Dursley marched as far as the front door, but Dudley did not follow.**

"Hestia is not going to like that." Tonks said.

"No, she's not." Remus chuckled.

**"Off with some of our lot?"Hestia looked outraged. Harry had met this attitude before witches and wizards seemed stunned that his closest living relatives took so little interest in the famous Harry Potter.**

"I bloody well don't want to be famous!" Harry exploded. "I just want to be left alone! Why can't I have that? What makes me so special that Voldemort wants to come after me?"

"Harry," Dumbledore started, "if it is not explained in the books, when we talk I will tell you; you deserve to know." Harry just nodded.

**"It's fine," Harry assured her. "It doesn't matter, honestly."**

**"Doesn't matter?" repeated Hestia, her voice rising considerably.**

**"Don't these people realize what you've been through? What danger you are in? The unique position you hold in the hearts of the anti Voldemort movement?"**

"Great," Harry groaned, "just where I wanted to be."

**"Er–no, they don't," said Harry. "They think I'm a waste of space, actually but I'm used to –"**

**"I don't think you're a waste of space"**

"Do I really want to know who said that?" Harry asked.

"From ze way your cousin was acting I would say Dudley." Fleur said.

Harry just groaned, "He is going to be so strange."

**If Harry had not seen Dudley's lips move, he might not have believed it. As it was, he stared at Dudley for several seconds before accepting that it must have been his cousin who had spoken; for one thing, Dudley had turned red. Harry was embarrassed and astonished himself.**

"You really don't change do you?" Tonks asked sarcastically.

**"Well... er… thanks, Dudley."**

**Again, Dudley appeared to grapple with thoughts too unwieldy for expression before mumbling, "You saved my life,"**

**"Not really," said Harry. "It was your soul the Dementor would have taken…"**

"He would have been nothing but a shell." Percy said. "Harry, I know I haven't been the best person lately, but I see you were just trying to do what was right, and I have to thank you for that. I can see the way my brothers act around you, and they treat you like you're family, and they're right, you really are a brother to all of us. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Percy," Harry started, "There was nothing to forgive in the first place."

Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny looked at Harry, shocked. "You, Harry Potter, are a mad, noble, self-sacrificing, git." Ginny said, poking him in the shoulder.

"I guess I deserve that." Harry sighed.

**He looked curiously at his cousin. They had had virtually no contact during this summer or last, as Harry had come back to Privet Drive so briefly and kept to his room so much. It now dawned on Harry, however, that the cup of cold tea on which he had trodden that morning might not have been a booby trap at all. Although rather touched he was nevertheless quite relieved that Dudley appeared to have exhausted his ability to express his feelings. After opening his mouth once or twice more, Dudley subsided into scarlet-faced silence.**

**Aunt Petunia burst into tears. Hestia Jones gave her an approving look that changed to outrage as Aunt Petunia ran forward and embraced Dudley rather than Harry.**

"That's Aunt Petunia for you." Harry said at the same time Tonks said, "That's Hestia for you."

This caused chuckles around the room. "I guess _no one_has changed that much in three years." Ron snickered.

"I can't wait to see how you turn out." Harry said, causing Ginny to giggle.

**"S-so sweet, Dudders…" she sobbed into his massive chest."S-such a lovely b-boy… s-saying thank you…"**

**"But he hasn't said thank you at all!" said Hestia indignantly. "He only said he didn't think Harry was a waste of space!"**

**"Yea but coming from Dudley that's like 'I love you,'" said Harry, torn between annoyance and a desire to laugh as Aunt Petunia continued to clutch at Dudley as if he had just saved Harry from a burning building.**

"I think I'd go with 'laugh.'" Sirius said, chuckling.

"I think this may be the first time I agree with Sirius." Remus said.

Harry laughed, glad to see his godfather and his dad's friend happy and relatively carefree for once.

**"Are we going or not?" roared Uncle Vernon, reappearing yet again at the living room door. "I thought we were on a tight schedule!"**

**"Yes–yes, we are," said Dedalus Diggle, who had been watching these exchanged with an air of bemusement and now seemed to pull himself together. "We really must be off. Harry –"He tripped forward and wrung Harry's hand with both of his own."—good luck. I hope we meet again. The hopes of the Wizarding world rest upon your shoulders."**

"No pressure." The twins said together.

"That's what it feels like." Harry admitted."Everyone's bloody lives rest on my bloody shoulders." Everyone looked sad at that, knowing that Harry meant Cedric, Sirius (in the book), Dumbledore (in the book), and everyone else who died at the hands of Voldemort.

**"Oh," said Harry, "right. Thanks."**

**"Farwell, Harry," said Hestia also clasping his hand. "Our thoughts go with you."**

**"I hope everything's okay," said Harry with a glance toward Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

**"Oh I'm sure we shall end up the best of chums," said Diggle slightly, waving his hat as he left the room. Hestia followed him.**

"Yeah, right," Hermione muttered, getting chuckles from everyone. She continued reading.

**Dudley gently released himself from his mother's clutches and walked toward Harry who had to repress an urge to threaten him with magic.**

Everyone laughed. "Old habits die hard," Harry admitted.

**Then Dudley held out his large, pink hand."Blimey, Dudley," said Harry over Aunt Petunia's renewed sobs, "did the dementors blow a different personality into you?"**

"It sure seems like it." Ron said.

"Yeah, it does." Harry admitted, feeling like he didn't even know his cousin.

**"Dunno," muttered Dudley, "See you, Harry."**

**"Yea…" said Harry, raking Dudley's hand and shaking it. "Maybe. Take care, Big D."**

**Dudley nearly smiled. They lumbered from the room. Harry heard his heavy footfalls on the graveled drive, and then a car door slammed.**

**Aunt Petunia whose face had been buried in her handkerchief looked around at the sound. She did not seem to have expected to find herself alone with Harry. Hastily stowing her wet handkerchief into her pocket, she said, "Well – good-bye" and marched towards the door without looking at him.**

"That is just wrong." Ginny sighed, "She's your _aunt_for Merlin's sake!"

"Well, that's Petunia for you." Snape said, causing several people to look at him strangely.

"You know my aunt?" Harry asked.

"I was—_friends_—with your mother until I made a very big mistake and blew it. I regret that to this day." Snape said. Everyone was shocked, except for Dumbledore, Remus, and Sirius.

**"Good-bye" said Harry.**

**She stopped and looked back. For a moment Harry had the strangest feeling that she wanted to say something to him; She gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to teeter on the edge of speech, but then, with a little of her head, she hustled out of the room after he husband and son.**

"I wonder what she was going to say..." Harry mused.

"Well, that's the end of the chapter." Hermione said.

"One more chapter, and then we shall all eat and go to bed." Dumbledore said. "We will find arrangements for Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, Minister Fudge, Miss Tonks, Miss Delecore, and Mr. Weasley."

"May I read?" Neville asked.

"Of course, Neville." Hermione said, levitating the book to Neville.


	4. Chapter 4 The Seven Potters

**Okay! I'm really, REALLY sorry about the wait but I was away for the weekend. We flew to Chicago then drove to Indiana on Friday into the Notre Dame campus. The next day we left early and re-walked the campus then headed towards the stadium and watched the football game and had a three hour delay. We went back to the hotel after that. We left early the next morning on the plane back home. When we arrived back home my mom told me that the internet would be down until Wednesday…so here I am! Working on the next few chapters and I received a good idea for another story. I'll finish this one and then understanding Potter then write the story I have in mind about Harry and Ginny!**

**Disclaimer:****Sadly I do not own Harry Potter or Ginny Weasley…that honor belongs to J.K Rowling.**

**"The Seven Potters"**Neville read.

"Erm…that doesn't make sense," Ginny said, confused.

"You're right it doesn't make sense," Harry agreed.

**Harry ran back upstairs to his bedroom, arriving at the window just in time to see the Dursleys' car swinging out of the drive and off up the road. Dedalus's top hat was visible between Aunt Petunia and Dudley in the backseat. The car turned right at the end of Privet Drive, its windows burned scarlet for a moment in the now setting sun, and then it was gone.**

"Yay!" Harry exclaimed causing everyone to cheer.

**Harry picked up Hedwig's cage, his Firebolt, and his rucksack, gave his unnaturally tidy bedroom one last sweeping look, and then made his ungainly way back downstairs to the hall, where he deposited cage, broomstick, and bag near the foot of the stairs. The light was fading rapidly, the hall full of shadows in the evening light. It felt most strange to stand here in the silence and know that he was about to leave the house for the last time. Long ago, when he had been left alone while the Dursleys went out to enjoy themselves, the hours of solitude had been a rare treat. Pausing only to sneak something tasty from the fridge, he had rushed upstairs to play on Dudley's computer, or put on the television and flicked through the channels to his heart's content. It gave him an odd, empty feeling remembering those times; it was like remembering a younger brother whom he had lost.**

"I guess that will feel strange." Harry mused. "I just hope I get to experience it sooner rather than later." Ginny, Hermione, and Ron nodded.

**"Don't you want to take a last look at the place?" he asked Hedwig, who was still sulking with her head under her wing.**

"Harry, I love your owl's attitude." Bill chuckled.

"So do I Bill, it makes her, her." Harry admitted.

"**We'll never be here again. Don't you want to remember all the good times? I mean, look at this doormat. What memories … Dudley throw up on it after I saved him from the dementors … Turns out he was grateful after all, can you believe it?**

"I sure can't," Ron said.

"To bad it won't happen in this reality," Hermione sighed.

"What do you mean by that Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Well, when we began reading this book, we changed time forever. We are going to make sure some people don't die, so the Dementor attack may not even happen," she explained.

"I couldn't have said it any better, Miss Granger," Dumbledore smiled, a twinkle in his eye. Hermione blushed and muttered a small "thank you," as Harry and Ron shared a smirk.

…**And last summer, Dumbledore walked through that front door …"**

"I wonder why?" Dumbledore mused.

"I think that's the last thing I'd expect," Harry admitted. "My headmaster comes through the front door. It seems a bit off to me." Everyone chuckled.

"I can see where you're coming from, mate," Ron snickered.

**Harry lost the thread of his thoughts for a moment and Hedwig did nothing to help him retrieve it, but continued to sit with her head under her wing. Harry turned his back on the front door.**

"**And under here, Hedwig" – Harry pulled open a door under the stairs – "is where I used to sleep!**

"Wait," Ginny said calmly. "Can you please reread that Neville?"

Neville did what he was told with a scowl. "Harry! Why did you not tell us about this?" Sirius asked, enraged. How could someone do this to his godson—or any child, for that matter?

"I never really thought it was important," Harry said in a small voice.

"For how long?" Tonks asked, just as angry as Sirius.

"For as long as I can remember. I got my first real bedroom when my first Hogwarts letter arrived. Uncle Vernon burned it and kept me from reading the rest, but he was still afraid that wizards were spying on the house. That's when he let me have a proper bedroom," Harry said in the same small voice.

"Harry, we will see what we can do about your living arrangements. I promise you, you will not be going back there," Dumbledore said.

Snape was confused. _What happened to spoilt brat, Potter? He was supposed to live the life of luxury, getting loads of gifts and being the center of attention. Maybe the boy isn't as bad as I originally thought. _Snape squashed down that last thought.

"What else did zey make you do, 'Arry?" Fleur asked with a frown on her face.

"Erm…I had to clean, cook, and do worse at school then Dudley," Harry said.

"Did they ever hit you Harry?" Remus asked, upset.

"No, no, no, Aunt Petunia would 'pretend' to try to hit me with the frying pan, but I would duck; it was what we did," Harry said.

"Harry, that's not right. They could be arrested for neglect, both mental and physical," Hermione explained causing Ginny to nod.

"No wonder Mum always tries to fatten you up when you come to visit," Ginny said softly. She was really upset about this; she really liked Harry, and it had started to feel like he liked her too. She just wanted him to be safe and happy, and he wasn't going to be either if he went back to the Dursley's. _Thank Merlin Dumbledore already said that he wouldn't be going back.I wonder where he'll be staying then,_Ginny thought.

Neville and Luna where having their own conversation about this. They did not like Harry being mistreated, and by his own family no less. No one should be treated like that.

Draco was deep in thought,_Saint Potter?_The_Harry Potter, being neglected by his aunt and uncle? Could I be wrong about him? Maybe I should try to see things his way and try to understand him. _Draco frowned. He had a lot of thinking to do.

Slowly, the shouts of anger calmed down and worked into normal conversation tones. Harry nodded to Neville, hoping he would get the message and continue reading and keep everyone quiet. Neville nodded and began to read.

"**You never knew me then – Blimey, it's small, I'd forgotten … "**

**Harry looked around at the stacked shoes and umbrellas remembering how he used to wake every morning looking up at the underside of the staircase, which was more often than not adorned with a spider or two.**

Ron shuddered at the mention of spiders, but everyone else looked angry as the cupboard was mentioned.

**Those had been the days before he had known anything about his true identity; before he had found out how his parents had died or why such strange things often happened around him.**

"They never told you about Lily and James?" Remus asked, his voice cracking.

"No," Harry answered. "I never knew what they looked like or anything about them until I found the Mirror of Erised. From there on, I learned a little bit more about my parents each year."

Sirius looked angry. "They never told you what you were?"

"No, Hagrid told me when he finally found me and gave me my letter."

Remus and Sirius were fuming at this knowledge. "Don't worry, Harry. We'll spend all summer telling you about your parents and all of the adventures the Marauders had," Sirius said.

"You know who the Marauders were?" Fred and George asked together.

"Haven't you heard Remus call me Padfoot?" Sirius asked, amused.

"You're-"

"The-"

"Marauders?" They finished together.

"The last two," Remus said."I'm Moony, Sirius is Padfoot, Harry's father, James, was Prongs, and the traitor Pettigrew was Wormtail." Fred and George beamed at their heroes.

"Harry!"

"Why did'nt-"

"You tell-

"Us-"

"That you were the son of a Marauder!" They finished together.

"It never came up," Harry said with a smile.

**But Harry could still remember the dreams that had dogged him, even in those days: confused dreams involving flashes of green light and once–Uncle Vernon had nearly crashed the car when Harry had recounted it – a flying motorbike …**

"My bike!" Sirius yelled. "Is there any way I could get that back?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "I believe I can speak to Hagrid when it is announced that you are innocent."

Sirius nodded enthusiastically.

**There was a sudden, deafening roar from somewhere nearby. Harry straightened up with a jerk and smacked the top of his head on the low door frame. Pausing only to employ a few of Uncle Vernon's choicest swear words,**

"Harry!" Ginny scolded, "Language!"

Everyone laughed at how much she sounded like Molly, except for Harry who looked scared. "I'm sorry Ginny. It won't happen again," he said quickly, hoping to appease the fiery redheaded girl next to him.

**he staggered back into the kitchen, clutching his head and staring out of the window into the back garden.**

**The darkness seemed to be rippling, the air itself quivering. Then, one by one, figures began to pop into sight as their Disillusionment Charms lifted. Dominating the scene was Hagrid, wearing a helmet and goggles and sitting astride an enormous motorbike with a black sidecar attached.**

Sirius moaned.

"Sirius, you will get your bike back. Don't worry about it," Harry chuckled.

**All around him other people were dismounting from brooms and, in two cases, skeletal, black winged horses.**

"What are they?" Harry asked.

"Thestrals," Dumbledore answered. "They pull the carriages to Hogwarts from the train, and they are invisible. Only those who have seen someone die will be able to see them."

"I'm able to see them," Luna said dreamily.

"Erm…what happened, Luna?" Harry asked.

"My mum, she liked to experiment with spells. One day, one went terribly wrong. I was nine," she said.

"I guess that means I'll be able to see them now?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore nodded sadly. "I am afraid you will, my boy, I'm afraid you will," he sighed.

**Wrenching open the back door, Harry hurtled into their midst. There was a general cry of greeting as Hermione flung her arms around him, Ron clapped him on the back, and Hagrid said, "All righ', Harry? Ready fer the off?"**

"**Definitely," said Harry, beaming around at them all. "But I wasn't expecting this many of you!"**

"**Change of plan," growled Mad-Eye, who was holding two enormous bulging sacks, and whose magical eye was spinning from darkening sky to house to garden with dizzying rapidity.**

"I just hope that this is the real Moody," Harry grumbled.

Dumbledore chuckled, "It most likely is."

"Good," said Harry.

**"Let's get undercover before we talk you through it."**

**Harry led them all back into the kitchen where, laughing and chattering, they settled on chairs, sat themselves upon Aunt Petunia's gleaming work surfaces, or leaned up against her spotless appliances; Ron, long and lanky;**

"Oi!" Ron yelled.

Harry laughed, "Sorry mate, I never knew you would be reading a book about my thoughts."

Run mumbled something unintelligible, and Neville continued, the sound of laughter coloring his voice.

**Hermione, her bushy hair tied back in a long plait;**

"My hair isn't that bushy!" Hermione grumbled.

**Fred and George, grinning identically; Bill, badly scarred and long-haired;**

"What happened?" Bill wondered worried.

"I'm sure we will find out," Fleur said, comforting him.

**Mr. Weasley, kind-faced, balding, his spectacles a little awry; Mad-Eye, battle-worn, one-legged, his bright blue magical eye whizzing in its socket;**

"That gets dizzying after a while," Tonks admitted.

**Tonks, whose short hair was her favorite shade of bright pink;**

Said person changed her hair from dark brown to her usual pink style.

**Lupin, grayer, more lined; Fleur, slender and beautiful, with her long silvery blonde hair; Kingsley, bald and broad-shouldered; Hagrid, with his wild hair and beard, standing hunchbacked to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling; and Mundungus Fletcher, small, dirty, and hangdog, with his droopy beady hound's eyes and matted hair.**

"I don't really like him," Remus admitted. "He's a thief, and I don't think they're good to have around." "You're right, Remus, but he can pick up information that we cannot," Dumbledore explained.

**Harry's heart seemed to expand and glow at the sight: He felt incredibly fond of all of them, even Mundungus, whom he had tried to strangle the last time they had met.**

"Why did you try to strangle him?" Ginny asked, worried.

"Erm…I'm really not sure," Harry admitted with a shrug.

"**Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minister?" he called across the room.**

"**He can get along without me for one night," said Kingsley, "You're more important."**

Harry groaned, "Can I just have a normal year for once in my life?"

"Sorry mate, but that's just not your luck," Ron chuckled as Harry scowled.

"**Harry, guess what?" said Tonks from her perch on top of the washing machine, and she wiggled her left hand at him; a ring glistened there.**

"**You got married?" Harry yelped, looking from her to Lupin.**

Cheers erupted from around the room as Remus blushed and Tonks smiled.

"Hey, Dora?" Sirius asked quietly after silently casting a spell so Remus couldn't hear him, "I'll make you a deal. I'll stop calling you Dora for the next year if you kiss Moony at the end of this chapter."

Tonks thought about it for a minute and then smiled. "Deal," she whispered back. Remus, whose enhanced hearing usually enabled him to hear even whispered conversations, was frustrated that he still couldn't understand what they were saying. However, he let it go for the moment when Tonks squeezed his hand as an act of comfort and Neville went back to the book.

"**I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet."**

"This time around, Harry, you'll get to come," Tonks said with conviction.

"Cool," Harry said with a smile.

"**That's brilliant, congrat –"**

"**All right, all right, we'll have time for a cozy catch-up later," roared Moody over the hubbub, and silence fell in the kitchen. Moody dropped his sacks at his feet and turned to Harry. "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent You-Know-Who getting in at pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already. What he's really done is to stop you getting out of here safely."**

"That's not good," Ginny fretted.

"It's okay, Gin," Harry said. Ginny smiled at the new nickname. "Look at how long the rest of the book is. And I have a daughter so I must survive." Ginny smiled at all of the evidence he had, but she still worried; anything could happen.

"**Second problem: You're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."**

"**I don't –"**

**"The Trace, the Trace!" said Mad-Eye impatiently. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about underage magic!**

"Is it strange that I didn't know about that?" Harry asked.

"Kind of, mate," Ron chuckled.

**If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse is going to know about it, and so will the Death Eaters. He can't wait for the Trace to break, because the moment you turn seventeen you'll lose all the protection your mother gave you. In short, Pius Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."**

**Harry could not help but agree with the unknown Thicknesse.**

Ginny, Hermione, and Fleur groaned. "Harry, don't think like that," Hermione said.

"Sorry, it's in my nature," he said.

"**So what are we going to do?"**

"**We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike."**

Harry grinned at the mention of brooms. "Can we go flying sometime soon?" He asked.

"When Poppy releases you from the hospital wing, yes, you may all go flying." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye.

**Harry could see flaws in this plan; however, he held his tongue to give Mad-Eye the chance to address them.**

"**Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions: when you come of age, or" – Moody gestured around the pristine kitchen– "you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?"**

**Harry nodded.**

"Thank Merlin!" Everyone (except Dumbledore, Fudge, and Snape) said, causing the adults to chuckle.

"**So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight.**

"That's not true," Sirius growled, glaring at Snape, who looked indifferent.

**We've leaked a fake trail to the Ministry: They think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't rely on him getting the date wrong; he's bound to have a couple of Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kingsley's place, Molly's Auntie Muriel's –you get the idea."**

"**Yeah," said Harry, not entirely truthfully, because he could still spot a gaping hole in the plan.**

"Yeah, won't they all notice when we all start towards someone's house?" Harry asked.

"Yup," Ron said, popping the 'p'. "That's not a very good plan."

"**You'll be going to Tonks's parents. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow. Any questions?"**

"**Er– yes," said Harry. "Maybe they won't know which of the twelve secure houses I'm heading for at first, but won't it be sort of obvious once" – he performed a quick headcount –"fourteen of us fly off toward Tonks's parents?"**

Everyone chuckled. "You really have to stop doing that, mate," Ron grumbled. "It's starting to get annoying." Harry just laughed harder in response.

"**Ah," said Moody, "I forgot to mention the key point. Fourteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents. There will be seven Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different safe house."**

**From inside his cloak Moody now withdrew a flask of what looked like mud. There was no need for him to say another word; Harry understood the rest of the plan immediately.**

"No!" Harry yelled. "No way! I am not letting my friends risk their lives for me."

"Like it's the first time for all of us," Ron said.

"This is different, you'll all be me! Do you know how dangerous that will be?"

"Harry they are all willing to take the risk," Sirius said softly.

Harry grumbled but refused to say anymore.

"**No!" he said loudly, his voice ringing through the kitchen. "No way!"**

"Mate, you _have_to stop that." Ron said.

"I can't help it," Harry admitted.

"**I told them you'd take it like this," said Hermione with a hint of complacency.**

**"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives - !"**

"—**because it's the first time for all of us," said Ron.**

"See? You do it too," Harry said as Ron grumbled.

"**This is different, pretending to be me –"**

**"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," said Fred earnestly. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."**

"Oi!" Harry said. "I take that offensively!"

"I don't." Ginny said. "I like your scrawny skinny self."

Harry blushed but didn't say anything, he really liked that Ginny liked the way he looked.

**Harry did not smile.**"**You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair."**

"**Well, that's the plan scuppered," said George. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."**

"**Yeah, thirteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic; we've got no chance," said Fred.**

"You can't do magic around me if I have the trace now can you?" Harry asked.

Fred looked sad, "I was really hoping you wouldn't figure that out…"

"But he did, and this is before it even happened," Ginny said smugly, causing Harry to chuckle.

**"Funny," said Harry, "really amusing."**

"**If it has to come to force, then it will," growled Moody, his magical eye now quivering a little in its socket as he glared at Harry. "Everyone here's overage, Potter, and they're all prepared to take the risk."Mundungus shrugged and grimaced; the magical eye swerved sideways to glance at him out of the side of Moody's head.**

"I don't know if it is wise to have a man who does not wish to be there help with this mission," Percy said with a nod.

Everyone looked surprised that Percy would want to help Harry; though he did apologize, it was still weird hearing it from him.

"That is true, Perce," Bill said with a frown.

"**Let's have no more arguments. Time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now."**

"**But this is mad, there's no need –"**

**"No need!" snarled Moody. "With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side? Potter, if we're lucky he'll have swallowed the fake bait and he'll be planning to ambush you on the thirtieth, but he'd be mad not to have a Death Eater or two keeping an eye out, it's what I'd do. They might not be able to get at you or this house while your mother's charm holds, but it's about to break and they know the rough position of the place. Our only chance is to use decoys. Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven."**

**Harry caught Hermione's eye and looked away at once.**

"What does that mean?" Ron asked.

"I can only guess," Dumbledore said._Could Tom have created more than one Horcrux? I need more information to know if I'm correct,_Dumbledore thought to himself.

"**So, Potter – some of your hair, if you please."**

**Harry glanced at Ron, who grimaced at him in a just-do-it sort of way.**

"**Now!" barked Moody.**

**With all of their eyes upon him, Harry reached up to the top of his head, grabbed a hank of hair, and pulled.**

"**Good," said Moody, limping forward as he pulled the stopper out of the flask of potion. "Straight in here, if you please."**

**Harry dropped the hair into the mudlike liquid. The moment it made contact with its surface, the potion began to froth and smoke, then, all at once, it turned a clear, bright gold.**

Everyone gasped at that, and Harry became confused. "What? What does that mean? Is that bad?" Harry asked, worried.

Hermione shook her head. "No Harry, this is good. It means you're pure of heart. If the potion is as bright and clear as the book says it is, then your heart has nothing bad in it. Remember that Crabbe and Goyle had the brown and bogey color potion?" she asked, and Harry nodded, "That means their hearts are the complete opposite."

Severus looked stunned. "When did you three brew Polyjuice potion to turn into Crabbe and Goyle?" he asked.

Hermione, Harry, and Ron looked sheepish. "In our second year, sir," Hermione said softly. "We thought Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin, and we tried to get information out of him by posing as his best friends."

Severus didn't know whether to look stunned, amused, or angry, so he settled for angry. "And you didn't know about this, Headmaster?" he asked.

Dumbledore shook his head, a bit amused at Severus's reaction. "No, I assure you Severus that I had no idea about this little adventure until now. And I am very impressed."

"So I have a pure heart?" Harry asked, lost again.

"It means you would do anything for anyone as long as they meant something to you. So it explains why you're a noble, self-sacrificing git," Ginny said with a smile.

Harry pouted, and Ginny kissed his cheek. Harry froze and then smiled, liking the warmth that spread through him when her lips touched his cheek. Neville smirked and continued to read.

"**Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry," said Hermione, before catching sight of Ron's raised eyebrows, blushing slightly, and saying, "Oh, you know what I mean – Goyle's potion tasted like bogies."**

"See?" Hermione said smugly.

"You just said their hearts weren't as good, not that it would taste better," Harry said. Hermione stuck her tongue out at Harry, causing the others to laugh.

"**Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please," said Moody.**

**Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Fleur lined up in front of Aunt Petunia's gleaming sink.**

"It looks as if we get to know each other better," Harry said to Fleur.

"Eet seems we do. I look forward to getting to know you better," Fleur smiled.

"**We're one short," said Lupin.**

"**Here," said Hagrid gruffly, and he lifted Mundungus by the scruff of the neck and dropped him down beside Fleur, who wrinkled her nose pointedly and moved along to stand between Fred and George instead.**

"At least you have good taste, Fleur," Ginny said making an effort to get to know the part-Veela better.

"I take particular pride in my knowledge in who eez trustworthy and who eez not," Fleur said softly. Ginny nodded.

"**I'm a said, I'd sooner be a protector," said Mundungus.**

"**Shut it," growled Moody. "As I've already told you, you spineless worm, any Death Eaters we run into will be aiming to capture Potter, not kill him. Dumbledore always said You-Know-Who would want to finish Potter in person. It'll be the protectors who have got the most to worry about, the Death Eaters'll want to kill them."**

"Well that's comforting," Harry muttered.

"I think it was meant to be," Bill responded with a chuckle.

**Mundungus did not look particularly reassured, but Moody was already pulling half a dozen eggcup-sized glasses from inside his cloak, which he handed out, before pouring a little Polyjuice Potion into each one.**

"**Altogether, then … "**

**Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur, and Mundungus drank. All of them gasped and grimaced as the potion hit their throats; At once, their features began to bubble and distort like hot wax. Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking; their hair was darkening, Hermione's and Fleur's appearing to shoot backward into their skulls.**

"That would be so weird," Harry admitted. Percy nodded in agreement.

"Imagine sitting in your aunt's kitchen watching your friends turn into you," Ron said.

"That would-"

"Be a brilliant-"

"joke!" The twins finished together.

"If Mum lets you do it," Bill said.

"Well, what did she say-" Fred began smugly.

"When Charlie wanted to chase dragons?" George said just as smugly.

"Or when you wanted to-"

"work for Gringotts?"

Bill blushed and mumbled something unintelligible.

"Yeah, that's what we thought," the twins said together.

Harry made a mental note to give the winnings of the tournament to the twins for their joke shop. It would do the world some good to have some laughs in such a dark time.

**Moody, quite unconcerned, was now loosening the ties of the large sacks he had brought with him. When he straightened up again, there were six Harry Potters gasping and panting in front of him.**

**Fred and George turned to each other and said together, "Wow –we're identical!"**

"Pathetic," Remus and Sirius chuckled together.

"It was not!" The twins shouted.

Neville quickly read on in the hopes of stopping an argument.

"**I dunno, though, I think I'm still better-looking," said Fred, examining his reflection in the kettle.**

"**Bah," said Fleur, checking herself in the microwave door, "Bill, don't look at me – I'm 'ideous."**

Harry looked hurt. "I take offense to that."

"Sorry 'Arry. I most likely didn't mean it zat way," Fleur said while Bill was wondering why it would matter to Fleur what he thought. He would have to look into that, he thought while examining their intertwined hands.

"**Those whose clothes are a bit roomy, I've got smaller here," said Moody, indicating the first sack, "and vice versa. Don't forget the glasses, there's six pairs in the side pocket. And when you're dressed, there's luggage in the other sack."**

**The real Harry thought that this might just be the most bizarre thing he had ever seen, and he had seen some extremely odd things. He watched as his six doppelgangers rummaged in the sacks, pulling out sets of clothes, putting on glasses, stuffing their own things away. He felt like asking them to show a little more respect for privacy as they all began stripping off with impunity, clearly more at ease with displaying his body than they would have been with their own.**

"Sorry Harry," said all of the people who were planning to be Harry.

Harry chuckled. "It's fine guys. Though if that happens in the future, show a little more respect for my privacy, please?'

They all laughed and nodded.

"**I knew Ginny was lying about that tattoo," said Ron, looking down at his bare chest.**

"Why would you know if I had a tattoo?" Harry asked Ginny, who shrugged, looking just as confused.

Fred and George smirked.

"It's most likely because sometime in the future you two date," Hermione said, making it sound like it was the simplest thing in the world. Harry and Ginny looked at each other and blushed, looking away. Neville watched this and snickered before continuing to read.

"**Harry, your eyesight really is awful," said Hermione, as she put on glasses.**

"Well, there isn't much I can do about it, Hermione," Harry said rolling his eyes as Hermione blushed.

**Once dressed, the fake Harrys took rucksacks and owl cages, each containing a stuffed snowy owl, from the second sack.**

"**Good," said Moody, as at last seven dressed, bespectacled, and luggage-laden Harrys faced him. "The pairs will be as follows: Mundungus will be traveling with me, by broom –"**

"**Why'm I with you?" grunted the Harry nearest the back door.**

"**Because you're the one that needs watching," growled Moody, and sure enough, his magical eye did not waver from Mundungus as he continued,**

"That's true," The trio and Ginny said together.

**"Arthur and Fred –"**

"**I'm George," said the twin at whom Moody was pointing. "Can't you even tell us apart when we're Harry?"**

"**Sorry, George –"**

"**I'm only yanking your wand, I'm Fred really –"**

"I don't think it's the time for jokes, Fred," Bill said. Fred just rolled his eyes.

"**Enough messing around!" snarled Moody. "The other one – George or Fred or whoever you are – you're with Remus.**

"Cool," said George, "I get a Marauder!"

Fred stuck out his tongue, and Remus laughed at the twins' antics.

**Miss Delacour –"**

"**I'm taking Fleur on a thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms."**

**Fleur walked over to stand beside him, giving him a soppy, slavish look that Harry hoped with all his heart would never appear on his face again.**

All of the Weasley's laughed.

"Sorry 'Arry," Fleur said, blushing.

"Sorry to tell you mate, but that's the face you make every time you look at Ginny," Ron admitted with a chuckle. Harry and Ginny blushed at that.

"I guess you and Bill are an item now, eh?" Ginny said, trying to turn everyone's attention from Harry and herself, and it worked. Bill and Fleur blushed.

"**Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral –"**

**Hermione looked reassured as she answered Kingsley's smile; Harry knew that Hermione too lacked confidence on a broomstick.**

Hermione blushed. "It's true you know," Ron said, snickering. Hermione slapped him on the back of the head, causing everyone to laugh at the two.

**"Which leaves you and me, Ron!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a mug tree as she waved at did not look quite as pleased as Hermione.**

"**An' you're with me, Harry. That all righ'?" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. "We'll be on the bike, brooms an' thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."**

"**That's great," said Harry, not altogether truthfully.**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius pouted.

"Erm…I think it's the sidecar. To be honest, I'd rather be on a broom," Harry said.

"But they would think that the real Harry would be on a broom or with the best Aurors," Percy explained.

"**We think the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom," said Moody, who seemed to guess how Harry was feeling. "Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into any Death Eaters, we're betting they'll choose one of the Potters who looks at home on a broomstick. All right then," he went on, tying up the sack with the fake Potters' clothes in it and leading the way back to the door, "I make it three minutes until we're supposed to leave. No point locking the back door, it won't keep the Death Eaters out when they come looking. Come on …"**

"That's a good point. Locking the door would do no good," Luna said. "It would be like putting a wrackspurt in an unlocked cage." Everyone looked_very_confused as to what Luna meant but knew by now that it was better not to ask.

**Harry hurried to gather his rucksack, Firebolt, and Hedwig's cage and followed the group to the dark back garden.**

**On every side broomsticks were leaping into hands; Hermione had already been helped up onto a great black thestral by Kingsley, Fleur onto the other by Bill. Hagrid was standing ready beside the motorbike, goggles on.**

"**Is this it? Is this Sirius's bike?"**

"**The very same," said Hagrid, beaming down at Harry. "An' the last time yeh was on it, Harry, I could fit yeh in one hand!"**

All of the girls 'awwed' at that, causing Harry to blush. "Sirius, do you have any baby pictures of Harry?" Ginny asked, chuckling at Harry's outraged expression.

Sirius chuckled. "Yes, I do. Would you like to see them when we get out of here?" Everyone was laughing at Harry as he tried to make Sirius take back that offer.

"Yes, that would be wonderful," Ginny laughed. Sirius joined in, laughing along with her at Harry's expression.

**Harry could not help but feel a little humiliated as he got into the sidecar. It placed him several feet below everybody else: Ron smirked at the sight of him sitting there like a child in a bumper car.**

Harry gave Hermione a look and she wacked Ron on the back of his head. "Oi! What the bloody hell was that for?" He asked.

"For being a right git," Harry responded.

"Then why did Hermione hit me and not you?" Ron asked.

"Because A) I'm in the hospital wing and Madame Pomphrey would be very angry if I got up and B) I'm holding your sister and I'd rather not move because I'm comfortable," Harry said, smirking at Ron's uncomfortable look.

**Harry stuffed his rucksack and broomstick down by his feet and rammed Hedwig's cage between his knees. He was extremely uncomfortable.**

**"Arthur's done a bit o' tinkerin'," said Hagrid, quite oblivious to Harry's discomfort. He settled himself astride the motorcycle, which creaked slightly and sank inches into the ground. "It's got a few tricks up its sleeves now. Tha' one was my idea." He pointed a thick finger at a purple button near the speedometer.**

**"Please be careful, Hagrid." said Mr. Weasley, who was standing beside them, holding his broomstick. "I'm still not sure that was advisable and it's certainly only to be used in emergencies."**

"Great, now something is going to happen. Foreshadowing," Hermione said with a sigh.

Everyone groaned. "Thanks Hermione," Harry and Ron muttered. (Had to put the AVPM quote in there.)

**"All right, then." said Moody. "Everyone ready, please. I want us all to leave at exactly the same time or the whole point of the diversion's lost."**

**Everybody motioned their heads.**

**"Hold tight now, Ron," said Tonks, and Harry saw Ron throw a forcing, guilty look at Lupin before placing his hands on each side of her waist.**

Remus and Tonks chuckled as Ron blushed.

**Hagrid kicked the motorbike into life: It roared like a dragon, and the sidecar began to vibrate.**

"**Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody. "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow.**

**On the count of three. One … two .. THREE."**

**There was a great roar from the motorbike, and Harry felt the sidecar give a nasty lurch. He was rising through the air fast, his eyes watering slightly, hair whipped back off his face. Around him brooms were soaring upward too; the long black tail of a thestral flicked past. His legs, jammed into the sidecar by Hedwig's cage and his rucksack, were already sore and starting to go numb. So great was his discomfort that he almost forgot to take a last glimpse of number four Privet Drive. By the time he looked over the edge of the sidecar he could no longer tell which one it was.**

**And then, out of nowhere, out of nothing, they were surrounded.**

Everyone gasped. Ginny clutched Harry's arm and buried her head in his chest in fear. Harry was rubbing circles on her back, consoling her. Ron was doing the same for Hermione, as was Bill and Fleur. Tonks had her head buried in Remus's chest as he rubbed circles on her back. Neville continued to read in a shaking voice.

**At least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle in the middle of which the Order members had risen, oblivious– Screams, a blaze of green light on every side:**

Ginny gave a gasp and looked directly at Dumbledore. "Please say we can change this," she said.

Dumbledore, whose eyes had no twinkle, nodded and said, "I already said that Harry would not be returning there, so we can put protections wherever he will live." Ginny nodded, all right for now.

**Hagrid gave a yell and the motorbike rolled over. Harry lost any sense of where they were. Streetlights above him, yells around him, he was clinging to the sidecar for dear life. Hedwig's cage, the Firebolt, and his rucksack slipped from beneath his knees –**

**"No– HELP!"**

**The broomstick spun too, but he just managed to seize the strap of his rucksack and the top of the cage as the motorbike swung the right way up again. A second's relief, and then another burst of green light. The owl screeched and fell to the floor of the cage.**

All movement in the room stopped as Neville read. Harry held back tears as he thought about his poor owl. Ginny whiped away a stray tear and he buried his head in her neck and started to cry. Hedwig was his first friend, the one being he could talk to about his magical life while stuck at the Dursley's.

"It's okay, Harry," Ginny said in a comforting tone. "Professor Dumbledore said we could change this. Hedwig will be fine."

"Yeah, Harry, everything will be fine, we'll find a way to keep Sirius and Dumbledore alive as well," Tonks said. Harry nodded, his head still buried in Ginny's neck.

**"No– NO!"**

**The motorbike zoomed forward; Harry glimpsed hooded Death Eaters scattering as Hagrid blasted through their circle.**

**"Hedwig– Hedwig –"**

**But the owl lay motionless and pathetic as a toy on the floor of her cage. He could not take it in, and his terror for the others was paramount.**

**He glanced over his shoulder and saw a mass of people moving, flares of green light, two pairs of people on brooms soaring off into the distance, but he could not tell who they were –**

**"Hagrid, we've got to go back, we've got to go back!" he yelled over the thunderous roar of the engine, pulling out his wand, ramming Hedwig's cage into the floor, refusing to believe that she was dead. "Hagrid, TURN AROUND!"**

"No, Harry! You have to get to the safe house!" Sirius exclaimed.

"You know you are talking to a book, right Padfoot?" Remus asked.

Sirius gave him a look that clearly said I-do-not-care-what-you-think-my–godson –is-in-trouble. Remus relented with a sigh and a nod of his head.

**"My job's ter get you there safe, Harry!" bellow Hagrid, and he opened the throttle.**

"Good," the Weasleys, Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and Fleur said.

**"Stop– STOP!" Harry shouted, but as he looked back again two jets of green light flew past his left ear: Four Death Eaters had broken away from the circle and were pursuing them, aiming for Hagrid's broad back. Hagrid swerved, but the Death Eaters were keeping up with the bike; more curses shot after them, and Harry had to sink low into the sidecar to avoid them. Wriggling around he cried, "Stupefy!" and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they scattered to avoid it.**

**"Hold on, Harry, this'll do for 'em!" roared Hagrid, and Harry looked up just in time to see Hagrid slamming a thick finger into a green button near the fuel gauge.**

**A wall, a solid black wall, erupted out of the exhaust pipe. Craning his neck, Harry saw it expand into being in midair.**

"In the right time I might have called that cool," Sirius said, "but given the circumstances I can't find the enthusiasm I would normally have."

"I would have to agree with him there," Remus said as the twins nodded.

**Three of the Death Eaters swerved and avoided it, but the fourth was not so lucky; He vanished from view and then dropped like a boulder from behind it, his broomstick broken into pieces. One of his fellows slowed up to save him, but they and the airborne wall were swallowed by darkness as Hagrid leaned low over the handlebars and sped up.**

**More Killing Curses flew past Harry's head from the two remaining Death Eaters' wands; they were aiming for Hagrid. Harry responded with further Stunning Spells: Red and green collided in midair in a shower of multicolored sparks, and Harry thought wildly of fireworks, and the Muggles below who would have no idea what was happening –**

Ginny groaned. "You don't think about those sorts of things when you are fighting for your life!"

Harry blushed, tear streaks still on his face. "My mind is kind of strange," he admitted.

"You bet it is," Ginny mumbled.

**"Here we go again, Harry, hold on!" yelled Hagrid, and he jabbed at a second button. This time a great net burst from the bike's exhaust, but the Death Eaters were ready for it. Not only did they swerve to avoid it, but the companion who had slowed to save their unconscious friend had caught up. He bloomed suddenly out of the darkness and now three of them were pursuing the motorbike, all shooting curses after it.**

**"This'll do it, Harry, hold on tight!" yelled Hagrid, and Harry saw him slam his whole hand onto the purple button beside the speedometer.**

**With an unmistakable bellowing roar, dragon fire burst from the exhaust, white-hot and blue, and the motorbike shot forward like a bullet with a sound of wrenching metal. Harry saw the Death Eaters swerve out of sight to avoid the deadly trail of flame, and at the same time felt the sidecar sway ominously: Its metal connections to the bike had splintered with the force of acceleration.**

"Oh no!" Fleur said, holding on to Bill tightly. Bill slowly rubbed Fleur's arm, trying to comfort her.

**"It's all righ', Harry!" bellowed Hagrid, now thrown flat onto the back by the surge of speed; nobody was steering now, and the sidecar was starting to twist violently in the bike's slipstream.**

**"I'm on it, Harry, don' worry!" Hagrid yelled, and from inside his jacket pocket he pulled his flowery pink umbrella.**

"Oh no," Hermione groaned.

**"Hagrid! No! Let me!"**

**"REPARO!"**

**There was a deafening bang and the sidecar broke away from the bike completely.**

Everyone gasped, and Ginny gripped Harry even tighter. "If you die I will bring you back so I can kill you myself," Ginny threatened, and Harry nodded, looking a bit scared.

**Harry sped forward, propelled by the impetus of the bike's flight, then the sidecar began to lose height in desperation Harry pointed his wand at the sidecar and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"**

Hermione, Ginny, and Ron let out a sigh of relief.

**The sidecar rose like a cork, unsteerable but at least still airborne. He had but a split second's relief, however, as more curses streaked past him: The three Death Eaters were closing in.**

**"I'm comin', Harry!" Hagrid yelled from out of the darkness, but Harry could feel the sidecar beginning to sink again: Crouching as low as he could, he pointed at the middle of the oncoming figures and yelled, "Impedimenta!"**

**The jinx hit the middle Death Eater in the chest; For a moment the man was absurdly spread-eagled in midair as though he had hit an invisible barrier: One of his fellows almost collided with him –**

**Then the sidecar began to fall in earnest, and the remaining Death Eater shot a curse so close to Harry that he had to duck below the rim of the car, knocking out a tooth on the edge of his seat –**

"Ouch," said Sirius, "I've done that before."

"Many, many times," Remus said softly, causing the twins to snort.

**"I'm comin', Harry, I'm comin'!"**

**A huge hand seized the back of Harry's robes and hoisted him out of the plummeting sidecar; Harry pulled his rucksack with him as he dragged himself onto the motorbike's seat and found himself back-to-back with Hagrid.**

**As they soared upward, away from the two remaining Death Eaters, Harry spat blood out of his mouth, pointed his wand at the falling sidecar, and yelled, "Confringo!"**

**He knew a dreadful, gut-wrenching pang for Hedwig as it exploded; the Death Eater nearest it was blasted off his broom and fell from sight; his companion fell back and vanished.**

Harry held back tears as Neville continued reading.

**"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," moaned Hagrid, "I shouldn'ta tried ter repair it meself – yeh've got no room –"**

**"It's not a problem, just keep flying!" Harry shouted back, as two more Death Eaters emerged out of the darkness, drawing closer.**

**As the curses came shooting across the intervening space again, Hagrid swerved and zigzagged: Harry knew that Hagrid did not dare use the dragon-fire button again, with Harry seated so insecurely. Harry sent Stunning Spell after Stunning Spell back at their pursuers, barely holding them off. He shot another blocking jinx at them: The closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and his hood slipped, and by the red light of his next Stunning Spell, Harry saw the strangely blank face of Stanley Shunpike – Stan –**

**"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.**

Remus, Sirius, and (surprisingly) Severus groaned. "You shouldn't have done that Potter," Severus said. "Because of what happened a few nights ago in this time, the Dark Lord thinks that 'Expelliarmus' is your signature move."

"And how would you know that?" Sirius asked, curious.

"As of last night, I am yet again a spy for Albus and the Dark Lord. I have to participate in meetings and pass on the information to Albus," Severus said.

"Well, why should I knock someone out of the sky when it would be just as bad as the Avada Kadavera curse? I won't kill innocent people in cold blood," Harry said firmly. "That's Voldemort's job." Ginny nodded her head in agreement.

**"That's him, it's him, it's the real one!"**

Severus looked at Harry as if to say "I told you so." Harry ignored him and nodded for Neville to keep reading.

**The hooded Death Eater's shout reached Harry even above the thunder of the motorbike's engine: Next moment, both pursuers had fallen back and disappeared from view.**

**"Harry, what's happened?" bellowed Hagrid. "Where've they gone?"**

**"I don't know!"**

**But Harry was afraid:The hooded Death Eater had shouted, "It's the real one!"; how had he known? He gazed around at the apparently empty darkness and felt its menace. Where were they?**

**He clambered around on the seat to face forward and seized hold of the back of Hagrid's jacket.**

**"Hagrid, do the dragon-fire thing again, let's get out of here!"**

"Good idea," Ginny said, hugging Harry as if worried he would disappear.

**"Hold on tight, then, Harry!"**

**There was a deafening, screeching roar again and the white-blue fire shot from the exhaust: Harry felt himself slipping backwards off what little of the seat he had. Hagrid flung backward upon him, barely maintaining his grip on the handlebars –**

**"I think we've lost 'em Harry, I think we've done it!" yelled Hagrid.**

**But Harry was not convinced; Fear lapped at him as he looked left and right for pursuers he was sure would come Why had they fallen back? One of them had still had a wand It's him. . . it's the real one They had said it right after he had tried to Disarm Stan. . . .**

**"We're nearly there, Harry, we've nearly made it!" shouted Hagrid.**

**Harry felt the bike drop a little, though the lights down on the ground still seemed remote as stars.**

**Then the scar on his forehead burned like fire: as a Death Eater appeared on either side of the bike, two Killing Curses missed Harry by millimeters, cast from behind –**

"Oh, no," Ron and Hermione said together. Even Draco and Severus looked a little pale.

**And then Harry saw him. Voldemort was flying like smoke on the wind, without broomstick or thestral to hold him,**

"Is that even possible?" Draco asked, his voice quivering.

"Sadly, Mr Malfoy, I do not know," Dumbledore said, the twinkle in his eye having gone out. "But I will look into it." Draco nodded; he was seriously reconsidering getting his Dark Mark.

**his snake-like face gleaming out of the blackness, his white fingers raising his wand again –**

**Hagrid let out a bellow of fear and steered the motorbike into a vertical dive. Clinging on for dear life, Harry sent Stunning Spells flying at random into the whirling night. He saw a body fly past him and knew he had hit one of them, but then he heard a bang and saw sparks from the engine; the motorbike spiraled through the air, completely out of control –**

**Green jets of light shot past them again. Harry had no idea which way was up, which down: His scar was still burning; he expected to die at any second. A hooded figure on a broomstick was feet from him, he saw it raise its arm –**

"NO!" Everyone yelled. They all were shaking and gripping onto their partners in fear.

**"NO!"**

**With a shout of fury Hagrid launched himself off the bike at the Death Eater; to his horror, Harry saw both Hagrid and the Death Eater, falling out of sight, their combined weight too much for the broomstick –**

"Oh no," Hermione said.

"Poor Hagrid," Ginny said with a frown. Even Harry had to hold back a few tears._First Sirius, then Dumbledore, then Hedwig, now Hagrid? I don't know how much more of this book I can take, _Harry thought.

**Barely gripping the plummeting bike with his knees, Harry heard Voldemort scream, "Mine!"**

**It was over: He could not see or hear where Voldemort was; he glimpsed another Death Eater swooping out of the way and heard, "Avada –"**

Everyone was silent.

**As the pain from Harry's scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord.**

"Is that even possible?" Remus asked.

"I am not sure. I do not know that much about wandlore," Dumbledore said. "I will, of course, be sure to ask Ollivander." Remus nodded and Neville continued. He just wanted to get the chapter over with. Why did he wind up with the longest chapter in the whole book? Not just the longest but the one with the most emotional strain.

**He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury.**

**The remaining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, "NO!" Somehow, Harry found his nose an inch from the dragon-fire button. He punched it with his wand-free hand and the bike shot more flames into the air, hurtling straight toward the ground.**

"Good," Ginny said, wiping away her tears. "Get out of there." Hermione and the others, including Malfoy and Snape, nodded in agreement.

**"Hagrid!" Harry called, holding on to the bike for dear life. "Hagrid –Accio Hagrid!"**

"No, you have to get to Tonk's parents house!" Ginny exclaimed.

**The motorbike sped up, sucked towards the earth. Face level with the handlebars, Harry could see nothing but distant lights growing nearer and nearer: He was going to crash and there was nothing he could do about it. Behind him came another scream, "Your wand, Selwyn, give me your wand!"**

**He felt Voldemort before he saw him. Looking sideways, he stared into the red eyes and was sure they would be the last thing he ever saw: Voldemort preparing to curse him once more –And then Voldemort vanished.**

"Harry has made it to the protections of Tonk's parents' house," Dumbledore said in response to the confused glances around the room. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

**Harry looked down and saw Hagrid spread-eagled on the ground below him. He pulled hard at the handlebars to avoid hitting him, groped for the brake, but with an earsplitting, ground trembling crash, he smashed into a muddy pond.**

"Read on Neville." Ron said.

"I can't. It was the end of the chapter, and thank Merlin for that too," Neville said with a sigh of relief. "Who would like to read next?"

"I will," Sirius said, winking at Tonks. "But, I think we should continue reading tomorrow."

"Yes, it is time for bed. Mr. Black, will you be joining Harry as a dog?" Dumbledore asked.

"Erm…yeah, I think I will, but I want to go outside a bit. I'll be Snuffles," Sirius said before transforming into a dog.

"Miss Delacour, you can sleep in the carriage from Beauxbatons. All of you Weasley's may sleep in the Gryffindor common room, and Mr. Malfoy and Severus, you know the way to the Slytherin common rooms and your own chambers," Dumbledore said while standing up. "Mr. Lupin, you can join the Weasley's in Gryffindor tower, and Miss Tonks, you can go to Hufflepuff. Miss Weasley will be staying with Miss Granger." Everyone nodded and headed towards their own sleeping chambers.

_**This chapter was twenty-two pages and 9,287 words…WOW! Thanks to AmyRose512 for the suggestions and grammer/spelling!**_


	5. Chapter 5 Fallen Warrior

**Okay, I'm really sorry for the long wait but school restarted, my singing group started up again, and I'm practicing for the talent show for my school…life sucks. I wish I could have updated earlier but you know how things work 'all things that can go wrong will go wrong'. Now on to the story…**

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Harry Potter, that is J.K. Rowling's job. I don't get paid… **

With everyone but Harry and Ginny out of the hospital wing Harry wiped away Ginny's tears. "Are you okay now Gin?" Harry asked.

"I'll be fine, you just worry me in the book." She admitted.

"You know we still have the whole book and we can change anything that might happen." Harry admitted hugging Ginny close, "Erm…Gin?" He asked blushing.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if maybe after I get out of here if we can go out sometime?" He asked.

"Harry Potter, are you trying to ask if I'll be your girlfriend?" Ginny asked.

Harry blushed even more, "Erm..only i-if you want to."

Ginny laughed, "Of course I would." She hugged Harry tightly and Harry moved his face to hers. He moved slowly as if to allow Ginny to move away or say no. She didn't move so he put his lips to hers into a sweet kiss. When they kissed a golden light was glowing above them causing them to break apart.

From the golden light came a girl about nine years old fell on Harry and Ginny's laps. "oof!" Harry and Ginny said as she landed on their laps.

"Erm…not to seem rude but who are you?" Harry asked.

"You don't recognize me?" The little girl said slightly disappointed.

"Erm, no?" He said but it came out as a question.

"I'm Lily Luna Potter." Lily said, Lily had reddish gold hair and hazel eyes. The girl reminded him of Ginny.

"Harry, didn't the note say it was signed by L.L.P?" Ginny asked.

"Are you L.L.P?" Harry asked the young girl.

"Yep." She said popping the 'p'.

"So you're my daughter?" He asked again she nodded, "But didn't the note say you would only show up when I knew who your mother was?" Harry asked again.

"You were close enough." Lily said with a chuckle. "I missed you Daddy!" Lily said hugging her father tightly. Harry thought about what the young girl just said.

"Wait?" He asked, "Does that mean Ginny is your mother?"

She nodded hugging her mother as well.

"Erm…that was a shock." Ginny said chuckling softly. "So we get married?" She asked him.

"I guess so." Harry said. "Do you have any siblings?" Harry asked his daughter.

"Yes, my oldest brother is twelve his name is James Sirius Potter, and my other brother is eleven and his name is Albus Severus Potter." Lily said. "Al started Hogwarts in my time but I have to wait two more years." She pouted and Harry chuckled, he knew he heard that somewhere before.

"How did you get here?"Ginny asked kindly.

"Teddy helped me. He graduated last year and he is really smart. He's your godson and we count him as our brother." Lily smiled. "James and Al had the idea before they left but they couldn't go through with it because they had to go to school." She yawned.

"Well, I think it's time you go to bed." Harry said softly. Lily hugged her younger dad and fell asleep curled up on his lap.

"I'll sleep on the other bed." Ginny said. "I'd rather not wake her up."

"Me neither." Harry chuckled, "I guess we have someone else to introduce tomorrow."

Ginny chuckled as well, "I guess we will."

_~Remus and Tonks~ _

Tonks remembered her bet with Sirius and walked up to Remus before he could head in the direction of the Gryffindor tower. "Hey Remus?" Tonks asked.

"Yeah?" Remus questioned stopping in his tracks.

"Erm…can I try something?" She asked.

Remus looked confused but nodded his head. Tonks slowly walked up to him and pressed her lips to his in a sweet kiss. Remus' eyes went wide but he deepened the kiss as Sirius walked in as Snuffles. He huffed and headed for the hospital wing to guard the door.

When they broke apart Remus was still confused, happy, but confused. "Not that I'm complaining but what was that for?" He asked.

"Two reasons," Tonks said, "One Sirius is a git and bet me that if I kissed you he wouldn't call me Dora, two, I really wanted to do that for about a month now." She admitted her hair turning red.

Remus chuckled, "I can understand your problem with Sirius but do you really want to be going out with someone like me?"

"Yes Remus, I do. I want that future we have so far." She admitted.

Remus nodded. "How about when the book is over we go on a real date then." Tonks nodded with a smile and they headed towards their separate dorms.

_~Harry and Ginny~ _

The next morning Ginny awoke before Harry, Lily was awake and sitting in Harry's lap thinking.

"Hi Lily, would you like to go meet Dumbledore?" Ginny asked. Her little face lit right up.

"I would love that mummy!" Lily said softly getting off of her dad's lap and running to get her mother's hand. Ginny lead Lily to the headmaster's office.

"Sherbet Lemon." Ginny said and the gargoyle moved out of the way. Ginny knocked on the door.

"Come in." They heard on the other side of the door. "Ah Miss. Weasley." He said causing Lily to giggle, she wasn't used to her mum being called _Miss. Weasley _she was so used to _Mrs. Potter_. "Who do we have here?"He asked.

"Actually professor last night Harry and I found out who Harry's daughter's mother is. When he found out it was me Lily just appeared." Ginny chuckled as Lily hugged her leg. "She told us about her brothers and Harry's godson. She came to read the rest of the book with us. I just thought a little warning would be good."

"A little warning was indeed wonderful, but my guess is you also need an extra breakfast from Poppy for young Lily." Dumbledore guessed and Ginny nodded. "I have some questions young one but I will wait until we start reading again so everyone is present. Is that okay?"

Lily nodded and said, "You're really smart just like my brother. Albus always wants to know what is going on around the world."

Dumbledore had questions in his eyes as she named her brother as 'Albus'. His eyes twinkling like crazy, "Enjoy your breakfast, I shall see you both soon."

Ginny and Lily silently made their way back to the hospital wing where Harry was awake and he looked worried. "What's wrong Harry?" Ginny asked.

"I thought it was all a dream." He admitted staring at the girl who ran towards him and jumped into his bed so she could sit on his lap.

"It wasn't Daddy." Lily said giggling at her father's cluelessness.

Ginny chuckled at her future daughters attitude, "Harry, I'm guessing that our only daughter is a daddy's girl."

"I'm guessing so too" Harry chuckled kissing his daughter on her head causing her to sigh.

After the three had breakfast and they were sure that the great hall had finished the doors opened to the hospital wing. When everyone was in the girl they froze when they saw the scene before them.

A red-haired girl with brown eyes was sitting on Harry's lap and he was laughing as Ginny kissed the younger girls head and then Harry's.

"What is going on here?" Ron asked slightly confused.

"Erm…Ron, this is my daughter Lily Luna Potter." Harry said.

"And _my _daughter, Lily Luna Potter."Ginny said smirking.

The little girl named Lily giggled, "Uncle Ron, you should close your mouth. Aunt 'Mione doesn't like it when you're at home."

"Wait we…?" Ron asked pointing to himself and then Hermione.

"Yes, you marry Aunt 'Mione and have Rose and Hugo. Rose is Albus' age and Hugo is my age. Scorpious just started dating Rose." Lily said.

"Who's Scorpious?" Ron asked his face turning red at the thought of his daughter dating.

"I think he is the son of someone named Malfoy?"She guessed. "But he's really nice, he got into Gryffindor with Al and Rose. James is there too."

"My son is dating a blood traitor and got into _Gryffindor_?" Draco asked confused.

"Yeah." Lily said confused. "Are you Malfoy?" When Draco nodded Lily continued on " You love him and said you were proud of him. Uncle Ron and you get along now. Can we read? I want to know more about Daddy."

"I'm guessing she's a daddy's girl?" Hermione asked still shocked she would marry her crush.

Harry chuckled, "You guessed right." Everyone started to move to their seats but Ginny sat next to Harry on the hospital bed and Sirius sat on the chair next to Harry and Lily as she sat on Harry's lap.

"So what are your brother's full names?" Sirius asked curious.

"Erm…" Lily said. "Who are you?" she asked causing everyone to chuckle.

"Your own godsons daughter doesn't even know what you look like, Black." Severus chuckled but inside he was wincing, how could he deal with a little girl who looked like her grandmother except for the eyes and she even had the same name.

Sirius ignored Snape's comment and went on. "I'm your dad's godfather."

"Ohh. You're Sirius! Daddy talks about you all the time." Lily said causing others to chuckle at the smile on Sirius' face. "My oldest brother is twelve and his name is James Sirius Potter. He's a Gryffindor and he wound up with the map that will go to my other brother Albus Severus Potter when James graduates. Al is also a Gryffindor and got the cloak because he is most like daddy and Mr. Dumbledore. Then there's me Lily Luna Potter, I'm only nine so I can't go to Hogwarts for two more years and I get the map after Al graduates."

Sirius, Severus, and Dumbledore were shocked that Harry would name their children after them, "Why is Albus named after them?" Ron asked.

"Daddy said that he is named after the two greatest headmasters of Hogwarts and that Mr. Snape helped him throughout his life no matter how things looked and that Mr. Dumbledore was like a grandfather to him." Lily said. The two mentioned were shocked they had never expected this.

"Why are you named after me?" Luna asked dreamily.

"Mum said because you two went through a lot together." Lily said and Luna nodded.

"Why me?" Sirius asked.

"I can answer this one, sweetheart." Harry chuckled. "The troublemaker has a trouble maker's name, after the two greatest trouble makers of all time."

Lily chuckled, "You said that before, you also said that's why you didn't give him the cloak."

"What cloak?" Severus asked almost nicely.

"I'm sure it will be mentioned." Harry said cutting off his daughter. He really didn't feel like answering that question right now.

"What about that bet 'Dora'?" Sirius asked with a chuckle.

"She completed it, Padfoot." Moony said grabbing Tonks' hand smiling.

"Good. Can I read now?" Sirius asked. Everyone nodded so he began.** "Fallen Warrior," **"Oh no." Sirius moaned. Everyone else looked worried.

"Someone dies." Harry sighed.

**"Hagrid?"**

**Harry struggled to raise himself out of the debris of metal and leather that surrounded him; his hands sank into inches of muddy water as he tried to stand. He could not understand where Voldemort had gone and expected him to swoop out of the darkness at any moment. Something hot and wet was trickling down his chin and from his forehead. He crawled out of the pond and stumbled toward the great dark mass on the ground that was Hagrid.**

**"Hagrid? Hagrid, talk to me –"**

**But the dark mass did not stir.**

"Oh no please don't tell me Hagrid is the fallen warrior?" Hermione asked tearing up.

"Teddy told me I can't tell you anything about the book but I could tell you about my family." Lily said sadly. Hermione nodded she knew in her heart that the young girl could not tell.

**"Who's there? Is it Potter? Are you Harry Potter?"**

**Harry did not recognize the man's voice. Then a woman shouted. "They've crashed. Ted! Crashed in the garden!"**

"Good. Mum and Dad will take good care of you." Tonks said with a smile.

Harry smiled as well, "So have you and Moony decided to try and date?" he asked with a chuckle.

Remus blushed but Tonks' hair turned red, "Maybe, Sirius can we please get back to the book?" She asked trying to change the subject. Sirius chuckled at her feeble attempt but started to read.

**Harry's head was swimming.**

**"Hagrid," he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.**

**The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions, with a burning sensation in his ribs and right arm. His missing tooth had been regrown. The scar on his forehead was still throbbing.**

**"Hagrid?"**

**He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in an unfamiliar, lamplit sitting room. His rucksack lay on the floor a short distance away, wet and muddy. A fair-haired, big-bellied man was watching Harry anxiously.**

Tonks and Sirius chuckled at that description.

**"Hagrid's fine, son," said the man, "the wife's seeing to him now. How are you feeling? Anything else broken? I've fixed your ribs, your tooth, and your arm. I'm Ted, by the way, Ted Tonks – Dora's father."**

Ginny groaned and Lily hugged her father tighter, "Why is it always you with the broken bones?" Ginny asked.

"I guess that's just my luck." Harry said with a smile hugging his daughter as she hugged him.

**Harry sat up too quickly. Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and giddy.**

**"Voldemort –"**

**"Easy, now," said Ted Tonks, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him back against the cushions. **

**"That was a nasty crash you just had. What happened, anyway? Something go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again, him and his Muggle contraptions?"**

All of the Weasley children laughed at that, it was right. He did tend to overstretch himself when it came to his muggle contraptions.

**"No," said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. "Death Eaters, loads of them – we were chased –"**

**"Death Eaters?" said Ted sharply. "What d'you mean, Death Eaters? I thought they didn't know you were being moved tonight, I thought –"**

**"They knew," said Harry.**

Sirius shot a look at Snape but continued to read. He wanted to know why Harry would name one of his children after that git.

**Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky above.**

**"Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don't we? They shouldn't be able to get within a hundred yards of the place in any direction."**

**Now Harry understood why Voldemort had vanished; it had been at the point when the motorbike crossed the barrier of the Order's charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great transparent bubble.**

Dumbledore chuckled, "That is the concept, but you can't see him and he can't see you." Harry nodded blushing slightly.

**He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes before he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face covered in mud and blood, limping a little but miraculously alive.**

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Hagrid was okay. The half-giant they all knew and loved was okay.

**"Harry!"**

**Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidistra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs. "Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o' that? I thought we were both goners."**

**"Yeah, me too. I can't believe –"**

**Harry broke off. He had just noticed the woman who had entered the room behind Hagrid.**

**"You!" he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.**

"What? What happened?" Ginny asked.

Tonks chuckled darkly, "I think I know what happened. Mum looks like Aunt Bella in the Dark and if someone doesn't already know her. Harry must have mistaken her for Bellatrix." They nodded and continued on.

**"Your wand's here, son," said Ted, tapping it on Harry's arm. "It fell right beside you, I picked it up…And that's my wife you're shouting at."**

**"Oh, I'm – I'm sorry."**

**As she moved forward into the room, Mrs. Tonks's resemblance to her sister Bellatrix became much less pronounced: Her hair was a light'soft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder. Nevertheless, she looked a little haughty after Harry's exclamation.**

"Yeah, she hates being called her sister. She was really a bitch." Tonks explained.

As that was being said Neville's jaw clenched and his hands turned. Harry saw this and nodded for Sirius to continue before it got too bad.

**"What happened to our daughter?" she asked. "Hagrid said you were ambushed; where is Nymphadora?"**

Tonks' face turned red and her hair turned bright orange. She hated it when people called her Nymphadora.

**"I don't know," said Harry. "We don't know what happened to anyone else."**

**She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expressions, if any of the others had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He had consented to the plan, given them his hair . . .**

"Harry…" Tonks groaned, her hair going back to its normal bubblegum pink, "You need to learn that whatever _we_ do, we do because we are trying to make a better world for our loved ones. Not because we want you to feel guilty if we die. If we die it's so the world is a better place for our loved ones and that might as well include you."

Harry had not heard anyone phrase it that way but it did kind of make sense.

**"The Portkey," he said, remembering all of a sudden. "We've got to get back to the Burrow and find out – then we'll be able to send you word, or – or Tonks will, once she's –"**

**"Dora'll be ok, 'Dromeda," said Ted. "She knows her stuff, she's been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors. The Portkey's through here," he added to Harry. "It's supposed to leave in three minutes, if you want to take it."**

"Take it." Hermione, Ginny, Tonks, and Luna said together causing everyone to laugh. Especially at the way Luna said it. She didn't say it like an exclamation but in her normal dreamy voice.

**"Yeah, we do," said Harry. He seized his rucksack, swung it onto his shoulders. "I –"**

**He looked at Mrs. Tonks, wanting to apologize for the state of fear in which he left her and for which he felt so terribly responsible, but no words occurred to him that he did not seem hollow and insincere.**

Tonks groaned and glared at Harry, "If you do that in this reality I will castrate you…" That caused every man in the room to look at each other and then glare at Sirius to read.

**"I'll tell Tonks – Dora – to send word, when sh Thanks for patching us up, thanks for everything, I –**

**He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and into a bedroom. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the door lintel.**

**"There you go, son. That's the Portkey."**

**Mr. Tonks was pointing to a small, silver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing table.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, reaching out to place a finger on it, ready to leave.**

**"Wait a moment," said Hagrid, looking around. "Harry, where's Hedwig?"**

"Daddy, it's okay." Lily said to the tears in her younger fathers eyes.

Ginny had to smile at the way her young daughter acted with Harry. She just hoped that with reading these books that she doesn't screw with what kids she has…

**"Sh she got hit," said Harry.**

**The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.**

Ron and Hermione looked at each other. If only they asked about Harry's home life he wouldn't have felt like that. He would still love Hedwig but he wouldn't have felt as if she was his only link to the magical world.

**Hagrid reached out a great hand and patted him painfully on the shoulder.**

**"Never mind," he said gruffly, "Never mind. She had a great old life –"**

"That is true. Hedwig has and will have a great life." Dumbledore said causing Snape to roll his eyes. Inside Snape was truly starting to feel bad about the way he treated Lily's son.

**"Hagrid!" said Ted Tonks warningly, as the hairbrush glowed bright blue, and Hagrid only just got his forefinger to it in time.**

**With a jerk behind the navel as though an invisible hook and line had dragged him forward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spinning uncontrollably, his finger glued to the Portkey as he and Hagrid hurtled away from Mr. Tonks. Second later, Harry's feet slammed onto hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow. **

"I hate that." Sirius said interrupting himself.

"Me too." Ron said.

"It makes me feel weird and then BOOM you hurt your feet…what's the point in that?" Sirius asked.

"Well, there is a way to go through a portkey without hurting your legs. You learnt it a few years ago…you learn it when you turn 17." Moony said with a smile, "Then again you are immature."

Sirius stuck out his tongue at that proving how mature you are.

**He heard screams.**

Ginny and Lily groaned, "What happened this time?" Ginny asked.

"Grandma is freaking out again." Lily said with a smile.

"Who? Oh…you mean Mum?"Ron asked.

Lily asked, "Yes, Uncle Ron, your Mum." That caused Hermione and Harry to chuckle at Ron's face.

**Throwing aside the no longer glowing hairbrush, Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on landing, clambered laboriously to his feet.**

**"Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.**

**"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.**

"That must have worried me." Harry sighed.

"You're always like that, Harry." Bill chuckled. "And I don't even know you that well." That caused everyone to chuckle at the look on Harry's face.

**The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.**

**"The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her, "We were surrounded the moment we took off – they knew it was tonight – I don't know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us –"** **He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but –**

"She understood, mate." Fred said.

"Yeah, you're a son to her as well." George said.

"And in a few years you really will be a part of the Weasley family." Percy said. That was the first thing Percy had said since he saw his soon to be niece. She was so cute that he never wanted to miss out on the chance to be an Uncle or a Father in his family.

**"Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pulling him into a hug he did not feel he deserved.**

"See?" Ron chuckled.

"And you did desearve it Harry!" Hermione said.

Luna nodded in agreement, "Everyone needs a hug once and a while…and that means you too Professor." She said speaking to Severus causing him to look at her in shock.

"If you hug me Miss. Lovegood I will take a hundred-fifty points from Ravenclaw." Severus said with a serious expression.

That caused Lily to chuckle but turn away from him before he could look at her.

**"Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily, "Fer medicinal purposes?"**

"Yea, okay, 'medical purposes'." Gred and Forge said together.

**She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for information at once.**

"Mummy says she can read you like a book." Lily said as-a-matter-of-factly. That caused a lot of laughter throughout the room and a blushing Harry.

**"Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them,"**

Remus groaned at that and pulled Tonks closer to him. Harry smirked in his direction, he was glad his friends could have a family that he never had but will have some time.

**she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby. "And that one," she pointed at an ancient sneaker, "should have been Dad and Fred's, they were supposed to be second. You and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin ought to be back in about a minute."**

Tonks sucked in a breath. She didn't want to know if Remus was the fallen warrior. That sound too much like something that would happen. They finally get happiness when one of them dies and ruins it.

**Mrs. Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one.**

**"Mum!" shouted Ginny pointing to a spot several feet away.**

**A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George appeared, spinning and then falling. **

Tonks let out her breath and leaned in closer to Remus.

**Harry knew immediately that there was something wrong: Lupin was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood.**

All of the Weasley's, Harry, and Lily gasped. "I thought you knew what happens?" Draco asked looking a little pale himself.

"Mummy and Daddy didn't tell me everything. They said I was too young and I guess I know why now." Lily said shuddering. Harry kissed her hair and motioned for Sirius to continue.

**Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. Together, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the living room, where they laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny gasped and Harry's stomach lurched: One of George's ears was missing. **

"Well, there goes our favorite joke." George said a little green. Fred didn't say anything. He really hoped George would be okay. If he lost too much blood it would be impossible for him to survive.

**The side of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.**

**No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son that Lupin grabbed Harry by the upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, back into the kitchen, where Hagrid was still attempting to ease his bulk through the back door.**

"What are you doing?" Snape sneered. (That sounds cool)

"I'm most likely making sure it's actually Harry." Remus said ignoring the sneer.

**"Oi!" said Hagrid indignantly, "Le' go of him! Le' go of Harry!"**

**Lupin ignored him.**

**"What creature sat in the corner the first time that Harry Potter visited my office at Hogwarts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"**

"A grindylow." The trio and Ginny said together. Remus smiled and nodded.

**"A – a grindylow in a tank, wasn't it?"**

**Lupin released Harry and fell back against a kitchen cupboard.**

**"Wha' was tha' about?" roared Hagrid.**

**"I'm sorry, Harry, but I had to check," said Lupin tersely. "We've been betrayed. Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only people who could have told him were directly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."**

Sirius glared at Snape. Lily saw this and got out of her father's lap and went to Snape and sat in his lap. He was shocked but didn't discourage her either he held her in his lap and waited for Sirius to continue. Besides she wasn't in Hogwarts yet so he couldn't take points, it also technically wasn't a hug.

Everyone was too shocked to say anything. Sirius had his mouth open in shock. "Uncle Sirius, you might wanna close your mouth. You might catch flies." Lily said causing everyone to chuckle despite the tense environment.

**"So why aren' you checkin' me?" panted Hagrid, still struggling with the door.**

"Polyjuice potion only works on humans, not half-giants." Hermione said in her normal swallowed-a-text-book-manner.

**"You're half-giant," said Lupin, looking up at Hagrid. "The Polyjuice Potion is designed for human use only."**

"It seems like you have your Moony, Harry." Sirius chuckled.

Hermione blushed but didn't say anything. There were worse people to be like.

**"None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight," said Harry. The idea was dreadful to him, he could not believe it of any of them. **

Harry nodded. He agreed with his future self. No one in the Order would have given him up. Snape only did it because he had too. He never mentioned the polyjuice potion so he gave them a way out. Harry believed that if his daughter trusted Snape then he could too.

**"Voldemort only caught up with me toward the end, he didn't know which one I was in the beginning. If he'd been in on the plan he'd have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid."**

**"Voldemort caught up with you?" said Lupin sharply. "What happened? How did you escape?"**

"There is no need to be sharp, Remus." Tonks scolded.

Remus blushed, "Yes, dear."

Sirius had to chuckle at how quickly Tonks had wrapped Moony around her finger. "Whipped." He whispered just low enough so no one but Moony could hear him. Remus just shot him a dark look.

**Harry explained how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Voldemort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of Tonks's parents.**

**"They recognized you? But how? What had you done?"**

"His bloody signature spell." Snape muttered.

Lily looked up to him, "You could be nice about it. I would have done the same thing Daddy did. I wouldn't have wanted to hurt someone I know was only doing it because he was forced to."

Snape thought about that. What would he have done?

At the same time Dumbledore was watching them with interest. Severus seemed to become the young man he knew so long ago. The man who was happy and carefree, that little one seems to bring out the best in him.

**"I . . ." Harry tried to remember; the whole journey seemed like a blur of panic and confusion. "I saw Stan Shunpik You know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of – well, he doesn't know what he's doing, does he? He must be Imperiused!"**

**Lupin looked aghast.**

"Not you too Uncle Remus." Lily whined.

"Lily, don't whine." Harry scolded from his hospital bed.

Lily looked down, "Yes, Daddy."

Remus looked thoroughly shocked to say the least. He had just been scolded by a nine year old, and for something he didn't even do yet. Tonks couldn't help but chuckle at the look on his face.

**"Harry, the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill you! At least Stun if you aren't prepared to kill!"**

**"We were hundreds of feet up! Stan's not himself, and if I Stunned him and he'd fallen, he'd have died the same as if I'd used Avada Kedavra!**

"Exactly." Harry and Lily said together causing everyone else to laugh.

**Expelliarmus saved me from Voldemort two years ago," Harry added defiantly. Lupin was reminding him of the sneering Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore's Army how to Disarm.**

"Please Professor Lupin, don't do that again. Zacharias Smith can be such a bastard!" Hermione said causing everyone to look at her shocked except Lily who giggled.

"What? I can curse as well." Hermione said with a grin.

"Aunt 'Mione does that a lot now a days. Daddy thinks Ron has corrupted her." Lily said with a smile.

Sirius took the silence that followed as his cue to read.

**"Yes, Harry," said Lupin with painful restraint, "and a great number of Death Eaters witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under the imminent threat of death. Repeating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!"**

Severus was nodding as Lily looked up at him with a frown. _Does he not like Daddy?_ She asked herself, _No it can't be, there is no way Daddy would have named Albus after someone who didn't like him._

**"So you think I should have killed Stan Shunpike?" said Harry angrily.**

**"Of course not," said Lupin, "but the Death Eaters – frankly, most people! – would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!"**

Harry frowned, he had used it a lot but it was a very useful spell.

**Lupin was making Harry feel idiotic, and yet there was still a grain of defiance inside him.**

"That would be your mother." Remus said hoping to avoid saying 'Lily'.

Harry smiled; he loved hearing about his parents. Especially when they tell him how much he's like them.

**"I won't blast people out of my way just because they're there," said Harry, "That's Voldemort's job."**

"Didn't we hear that last night?" Percy asked.

Ron nodded annoyed at Harry as he repeated himself yet again.

**Lupin's retort was lost: Finally succeeding in squeezing through the door, Hagrid staggered to a chair and sat down; it collapsed beneath him. Ignoring his mingled oaths and apologies, Harry addressed Lupin again.**

**"Will George be okay?"**

Fred nodded that was what he wanted to know as well…

**All Lupin's frustration with Harry seemed to drain away at the question.**

**"I think so, although there's no chance of replacing his ear, not when it's been cursed off –"**

"Well, there goes our favorite joke." George said with a smile.

"Since when did you get so holy?" Fred asked.

"I think…in about two years" George answered.

**There was a scuffling from outside. Lupin dived for the back door; Harry leapt over Hagrid's legs and sprinted into the yard.**

**Two figures had appeared in the yard, and as Harry ran toward them he realized they were Hermione, now returning to her normal appearance,**

Ron let out a breath that everyone heard and he blushed as all eyes turned to him and Hermione.

**and Kingsley, both clutching a bent coat hanger, Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms, but Kingsley showed no pleasure at the sight of any of them. Over Hermione's shoulder Harry saw him raise his wand and point it at Lupin's chest.**

**"The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us!"**

**"'Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him,'" said Lupin calmly.**

"Great." Harry groaned. "Why did you say that, sir?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "because it is truth, my boy."

**Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Lupin said, "It's him, I've checked!"**

"Thank Merlin!" Harry said. "I don't know how I would have managed another interrogation."

At his words everyone chuckled, except the obvious, though Dumbledore did chuckle.

**"All right, all right!" said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak, "But somebody betrayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!"**

**"So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realize that there would be seven Harrys."**

**"Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"**

**"Only Harry, Hagrid, George, and me."**

**Hermione stifled a little moan behind her hand.**

"Does that mean Ms. Granger likes someone?" Sirius asked with a smile causing Hermione to blush.

"Oh hush, Sirius." She said motioning for him to continue.

**"What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley.**

**"Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, **

**"Yeah he did," Hermione said. "and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can –"**

**"Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me."**

**"So that's why he left, to follow you!" said Kingsley, "I couldn't understand why he'd vanished. But what made him change targets?"**

"Potter acting a little to kindly to Stan." Snape muttered causing Lilly to look at him upset.

"You do know I'm a Potter too?" She asked causing Harry to smirk. Snape looked surprised, he knew Lily was a Potter but he was just so used to calling Ha-Harry, Potter. Lily got off of Snape's lap and hopped onto her dad's. She snuggled her head on his chest and Sirius continued reading.

**"Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shunpike," said Lupin.**

Said two people looked shocked, they had said the same thing! After he got over the shock he sneered, he did not want to say the same thing as the wolf.

**"Stan?" repeated Hermione. "But I thought he was in Azkaban?"**

**Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.** **"Hermione, there's obviously been a mass breakout which the Ministry has hushed up. Travers's hood fell off when I cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. But what happened to you, Remus? Where's George?"**

**"He lost an ear," said Lupin.**

**"lost an - ?" repeated Hermione in a high voice.**

**"Snape's work," said Lupin.**

Lily looked upset that was something her father hadn't told her. "Why didn't you tell me this, Daddy?" she asked.

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment before answering, "I most likely didn't want to diminish your respect for him. After all there must have been a reason we gave Al the middle name Severus." Lily nodded.

Snape on the other hand looked upset before masking it as quickly as he could, he had upset the little girl who looked almost exactly like his best friend, her grandmother.

**"Snape?" shouted Harry. "You didn't say –"**

**"He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumsempra was always a specialty of Snape's. I wish I could say I'd paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood."**

The Weasley family paled, as did Harry and Hermione. They all took quick looks at George.

**Silence fell between the four of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, unobscured by flying friends. Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Mr. Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus?**

They all shuddered, one of them was going to die. They couldn't bear the thought of one of their brothers, uncles, any part of their friends and family, to die.

**"Harry, give us a hand!" called Hagrid hoarsely from the door, in which he was stuck again. Glad of something to do, Harry pulled him free, the headed through the empty kitchen and back into the sitting room, where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were still tending to George. Mrs. Weasley had staunched his bleeding now, and by the lamplight Harry saw a clean gaping hole where George's ear had been.**

Said twin reached up and touched his ear to make sure it was there.

**"How is he?"**

**Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, "I can't make it grow back, not when it's been removed by Dark Magic. But it could've been so much wors He's alive."**

**"Yeah," said Harry. "Thank God."**

**"Did I hear someone else in the yard?" Ginny asked.**

**"Hermione and Kingsley," said Harry.**

**"Thank goodness," Ginny whispered. They looked at each other; Harry wanted to hug her, hold on to her;**

Harry looked at Ginny and they blushed, maybe Hermione was right. Maybe they did date before this book. Harry hugged his daughter close to him and sighed, he just hoped she wouldn't change if they changed the future. That was something he would have to ask her when he got the chance.

**he did not even care much that Mrs. Weasley was there, but before he could act on the impulse, there was a great crash from the kitchen.**

"I don't think Mum would have minded." Percy said, "She talks about how you two will end up together all the time." That comment caused said couple to blush as their daughter smirked.

**"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!"**

"Never knew Dad had it in him." Fred said still slightly pale.

"Well, when it comes to us he always said he would do anything." George said equally as pale. The rest of the Weasley family just nodded in agreement as Sirius continued to read.

**Harry had never heard Mr. Weasley shout like that before. He burst into the living room, his bald patch gleaming with sweat, his spectacles askew, Fred right behind him, both pale but uninjured.**

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Fred and Arthur weren't the 'fallen warrior'.

**"Arthur!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goodness!"**

**"How is he?"**

**Mr. Weasley dropped to his knees beside George. For the first time since Harry had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words. He gaped over the back of the sofa at his twin's wound as if he could not believe what he was seeing.** **Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their father's arrival, George stirred.**

**"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.**

**George's fingers groped for the side of his head.**

**"Saintlike," he murmured.**

Fred looked at George in mock anger, "You took my joke!"

George just laughed, "Who said I wasn't being serious?"

"I think I would know if you were me." Sirius said, making Lily laugh.

All Fred had to say was, "You are my twin, I think I would know if you were being serious."

**"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"**

"No more affected as usual." Bill chuckled, causing George and Fred to mock glare at him before bursting into laughter.

**"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see. . . I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?"**

Fred just looked at George as if to say 'I-told-you-so'.

**Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.**

**"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before you, you go for holey?"**

**"Ah well," said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum."**

"Ah, our favorite joke shot to he-"

"Fred Weasley! If you finish that sentence with my daughter present I will have Mum come and read the book as well!" Ginny said causing Fred and George to wince in horror of how much Ginny sounded like their Mum.

**He looked around.**

**"Hi, Harry – you are Harry, right?"**

"Considering Fred and Hermione no longer look like Harry, I would say he is." Percy said in his 'as-a-matter-of-fact' tone.

**"Yeah, I am," said Harry, moving closer to the sofa.**

**"Well, at least we got you back okay," said George. "Why aren't Ron and Bill huddled round my sickbed?"**

**"They're not back yet, George," said Mrs. Weasley.**

That caused everyone to look upset. Ron, Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-eye, or Mungdungaus could be the 'fallen warrior'.

**George's grin faded. Harry glanced at Ginny and motioned to her to accompany him back outside. As they walked through the kitchen she said in a low voice.**

**"Ron and Tonks should be back by now. They didn't have a long journey; Auntie Muriel's not that far from here."**

That caused Remus to pale. Tonks, realizing Remus had just frozen leaned in and kissed him lightly, "I'm going to be okay, Remus. If not we can change it. Alright?" Remus just nodded stiffly.

Hermione tried not to look terrified that her 'crush' was in danger.

**Harry said nothing. He had been trying to keep fear at bay ever since reaching the Burrow, but now it enveloped him, seeming to crawl over his skin, throbbing in his chest, clogging his throat. As they walked down the back steps into the dark yard, Ginny took his hand.**

Ginny did the same thing in their time. Lily just looked at her young parents entwined hands and smiled. She always liked watching her parent's love and wanted the same thing someday.

**Kingsley was striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned. Harry was reminded of Uncle Vernon pacing the living room a million years ago. Hagrid, Hermione, and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing upward in silence. None of them looked around when Harry and Ginny joined their silent vigil.**

**The minutes stretched into what might as well have been years. The slightest breath of wind made them all jump and turn toward the whispering bush or tree in the hope that one of the missing Order members might leap unscathed from its leaves –**

**And then a broom materialized directly above them and streaked toward the ground –**

**"It's them!" screamed Hermione.**

**Tonks landed in a long skid that sent earth and pebbles everywhere.**

Hermione and Remus let out breaths they had no idea they were holding. Both happy that the one's they loved were okay.

**"Remus!" Tonks cried as she staggered off the broom into Lupin's arms. His face was set and white: He seemed unable to speak, Ron tripped dazedly toward Harry and Hermione.**

**"You're okay," he mumbled, before Hermione flew at him and hugged him tightly.**

Hermione threw her arms around Ron's neck and kissed him right on his lips causing cat-calls and wolf-whistles from the Weasley's, Harry, and Lily. Ron went red but hugged her close.

"You ever scare me like that again; Ron Weasley and I will kill you." She threatened, causing everyone to chuckle at the new couple.

**"I thought – I thought –"**

**"'M all right," said Ron, patting her on the back. "'M fine."**

**"Ron was great," said Tonks warmly, relinquishing her hold on Lupin. "Wonderful. Stunned one of the Death Eaters, straight to the head, and when you're aiming at a moving target from a flying broom –"**

**"You did?" said Hermione, gazing up at Ron with her arms still around his neck.**

**"Always the tone of surprise," he said a little grumpily, breaking free. **

"I can do things you know." Ron said.

"I realize that Ron, but I was in shock you were alright, cut me some slack." Hermione answered. Ron blushed but nodded.

**"Are we the last back?"**

**"No," said Ginny, "we're still waiting for Bill and Fleur and Mad-Eye and Mundungus. I'm going to tell Mum and Dad you're okay, Ron –"**

**She ran back inside.**

**"So what kept you? What happened?" Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.**

"I was just worried," Remus said to Tonks' upset facial expression."That's how I deal with worry, I get angry. That's one habit I have to forget." Tonks nodded and leaned her head against his chest.

Draco was sitting in the corner wondering why he was there. He really didn't want to be there, he understood now that the way he treated Potter was bad and he shouldn't have done it but he just wanted to be in the Slytherin common room moping about how he couldn't make fun of Potter anymore.

**"Bellatrix," said Tonks. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, She tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix.**

"Why do you owe Bellatrix?" Neville asked.

Tonks shrugged but Lily answered, "Bellatrix is the one who killed Uncle Sirius." That caused everyone in the room to pale, besides Fudge, Snape, and Draco. "After this book we might be able to read short chapters on how some people died." Everyone nodded at that, they wanted to hear how Sirius and Dumbledore die.

**But we definitely injured Rodolphu Then we got to Ron's Auntie Muriel's and we missed our Portkey and she was fussing over us –"**

"Well, that would explain it." Ginny sighed.

**A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else.**

**"So what happened to you lot?" Tonks asked, turning to Harry, Hermione, and Kingsley.**

**They recounted the stories of their own journeys, but all the time the continued absence of Bill, Fleur, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon them like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to ignore.**

**"I'm going to have to get back to Downing Street, I should have been there an hour ago," said Kingsley finally, after a last sweeping gaze at the sky. "Let me know when they're back."**

**Lupin nodded. With a wave to the others, Kingsley walked away into the darkness toward the gate. Harry thought he heard the faintest pop as Kingsley Disapparated just beyond the Burrow's boundaries.**

**Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came racing down the back steps, Ginny behind them. Both parents hugged Ron before turning to Lupin and Tonks.**

**"Thank you," said Mrs. Weasley, "for our sons."**

**"Don't be silly, Molly," said Tonks at once.**

**"How's George?" asked Lupin.**

**"What's wrong with him?" piped up Ron.**

**"He's lost –"**

**But the end of Mrs. Weasley's sentence was drowned in a general outcry. A thestral ** **had just soared into sight and landed a few feet from them. Bill and Fleur slid from its back, windswept but unhurt.**

"Oh God, eez eizer Mad-eye or Mungdungauz." Fleur fretted, Bill rubbed her back in comfort.

**"Bill! Thank God, thank God –"**

**Mrs. Weasley ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead."**

They all bowed their heads in a moment of silence. "Poor Mad-eye. If Dug did anything to help in Mad-eye's death I will become the murderer I was blamed for." Sirius snarled causing Fudge to jump.

**Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Harry felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever.**

**"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort – he can fly – went straight for them. Dung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated.**

Sirius read the paragraph through his teeth, "If we ever need to get Pup out of a tight space, Mungdungas is not allowed to help." He snarled.

Dumbledore and Remus nodded in agreement, they could not count on Mungdungas if he was just going to disaperate at every face of danger.

**Voldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and – there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail –"** **Bill's voice broke.**

**"Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Lupin.**

**They all stood looking at each other. Harry could not quite comprehend it. Mad-Eye dead; it could not b Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor . . .**

The Harry of his time was thinking along the same lines. _How could Mad-eye be dead?_

**At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed Mr. And Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.**

**"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's -?"**

**"Mad-Eye," said Mr. Weasley, "Dead."**

**The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock.**

"Mad-eye was so strong-,"

"No one would ever-,"

"Think that he would die." The twins finished together.

**Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, Harry knew, his favorite and his protégée at the Ministry of Magic. **

Said person was silently crying into Remus' chest as his face was one of pure shock.

**Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.**

**Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of fire-whisky and some glasses.**

**"Here," he said, and with a wave of his wand, and sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft. "Mad-Eye."**

**"Mad-Eye," they all said, and drank.**

**"Mad-Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccup. The firewhisky seared Harry's throat. It seemed to burn feeling back into him, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality firing him with something that was like courage.**

"Harry's not of age though." Hermione said.

"He's close enough, Hermione." Ron said. "His birthday is like two days away and he is upset." Hermione nodded but her face said she didn't agree.

**"So Mundungus disappeared?" said Lupin, who had drained his own glass in one.**

**The atmosphere changed at once. Everybody looked tense, watching Lupin, both wanting him to go on, it seemed to Harry, and slightly afraid of what they might hear.**

**"I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn't they? But Mundungus can't have betrayed us. They didn't know there would be seven Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggery. **

"Snape was the leak but who told Snape?" Harry asked, causing Bill to freeze. "Couldn't Dung have told Snape about enough of the plan but not all of it?" They all just nodded, Snape as well, he figured Dung must've told him about the seven Potter's but he must've kept it from the Dark Lord.

**Why wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as that. He didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them. It was enough to make anyone panic."**

**"You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad-Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks. "Mad-Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled Aurors. He chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley "**

"Zat doez zound like zomezing e' would do." Fleur said sadly.

**"Yes, and zat eez all very good," snapped Fleur, "but still eet does not explain 'ow zey know we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been careless. Somebody let slip ze date to an outsider. It is ze only explanation for zem knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan."**

**She glared around at them all, tear tracks still etched on her beautiful face, silently daring any of them to contradict her. Nobody did. The only sound to break the silence was that of Hagrid hiccupping from behind his handkerchief. Harry glanced at Hagrid, who had just risked his own life to save Harry's – Hagrid, whom he loved, whom he trusted, who had once been tricked into giving Voldemort crucial information in exchange for a dragon's egg. . . .**

"And when, pray tell was that?" Snape asked causing the trio to blush and look away from each other hoping not to give Hagrid away.

**"No," Harry said aloud, and they all looked at him, surprised: The firewhisky seemed to have amplified his voice. "I mea if somebody made a mistake," Harry went on, "and let something slip, I know they didn't mean to do it. It's not their fault," he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken. "We've got to trust each other. I trust all of you, I don't think anyone in this room would ever** **sell me to Voldemort."**

"Exactly, I don't believe I have anyone like Pettigrew in my group of friends, if I can't trust my friends who can I trust?" Harry asked causing Remus to stop, whatever he was going to say no longer applied.

**More silence followed his words. They were all looking at him; Harry felt a little hot again, and drank some more firewhisky for something to do. As he drank, he thought of Mad-Eye. Mad-Eye had always been scathing about Dumbledore's willingness to trust people.**

"And he really shouldn't have." Harry mumbled. Lily was looking quite scared after her father's declaration. Harry saw this and kissed her forehead, "I'm sorry for scaring you. I was just upset." She nodded and motioned for her 'Uncle' Sirius to continue.

**"Well said, Harry," said Fred unexpectedly.**

**"Year, 'ear, 'ear," said George, with half a glance at Fred, the corner of whose mouth twitched.**

**Lupin was wearing an odd expression as he looked at Harry. It was close to pitying.**

**"You think I'm a fool?" demanded Harry.**

**"No, I think you're like James," said Lupin, "who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends."**

**Harry knew what Lupin was getting at: that his father had been betrayed by his friend Peter Pettigrew. **

"None of my friends are as pathetic as Pettigrew." Harry said then turned to his daughter, "Do I get backstabbed by anyone of my friends?" he asked slightly worried.

Lily shook her head, "No, you only said you wished you trusted some people a little more."

That made everyone look pensive, _why would Harry need to trust more? _As she said that Snape froze, he knew who she was talking about. She was talking about him.

**He felt irrationally angry. He wanted to argue, but Lupin had turned away from him, set down his glass upon a side table, and addressed Bill, "There's work to do. I can ask Kingsley whether –"**

**"No," said Bill at once, "I'll do it, I'll come."**

**"Where are you going?" said Tonks and Fleur together.**

**"Mad-Eye's body," said Lupin. "We need to recover it."**

**"Can't it - ?" began Mrs. Weasley with an appealing look at Bill.**

**"Wait?" said Bill, "Not unless you'd rather the Death Eaters took it?"**

Everyone shuddered at that thought, even Luna looked upset.

**Nobody spoke. Lupin and Bill said good bye and left.**

**The rest of them now dropped into chairs, all except for Harry, who remained standing. The suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence.**

**"I've got to go too," said Harry.** **Ten pairs of startled eyes looked at him.**

**"Don't be silly, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, "What are you talking about?"**

**"I can't stay here."** **He rubbed his forehead; it was prickling again, he had not hurt like this for more than a year.** **"You're all in danger while I'm here. I don't want –"**

All of the Weasley's sighed, "Mum is going to guilt you into staying anyway." Percy said, "And she should, after all that work of getting you there you're going to screw it up!"

Everyone looked at Percy in shock, they never knew he would talk like that. "What? I grew up with the twins, I had to learn to yell once in a while."

**"But don't be so silly!" said Mrs. Weasley. "The whole point of tonight was to get you here safely, and thank goodness it worked. And Fleur's agreed to get married here rather than in France, we've arranged everything so that we can all stay together and look after you –"**

**She did not understand; she was making him feel worse, not better.**

"That's the point." Ginny said angrily, "If you _ever_ pull a stunt like that in this time I will find you and murder you before Voldemort ever gets his chance."

Harry flinched, he wasn't so sure he liked an angry Ginny, "Yes dear." He said causing Lily and the Weasley's to laugh.

"Whipped." George whispered to Fred. Lily was just amused at how her parents never changed.

**"If Voldemort finds out I'm here –"**

**"But why should he?" asked Mrs. Weasley.**

**"There are a dozen places you might be now, Harry," said Mr. Weasley. "He's got no way of knowing which safe house you're in."**

"But because of Pettigrew as a rat, knew how much time I spent there." Harry sighed causing the Weasley's and Dumbledore to pale, they had never thought of that.

Sirius just looked like he wanted to go find Pettigrew and rip him to shreds and burn the pieces.

**"It's not me I'm worried for!" said Harry.**

"I would most likely be worried for you." He whispered in Ginny's ear causing her to blush and fake slap him on the arm.

**"We know that," said Mr. Weasley quietly, "but it would make our efforts tonight seem rather pointless if you left."**

**"Yer not goin' anywhere," growled Hagrid. "Blimey, Harry, after all we wen' through ter get you here?"**

"They do have a point." The twins said together.

**"Yeah, what about my bleeding ear?" said George, hoisting himself up on his cushions.**

**"I know that –"**

**"Mad-Eye wouldn't want –"**

**"I KNOW!" Harry bellowed.**

**He felt beleaguered and blackmailed: Did they think he did not know what they had done for him, didn't they understand that it was for precisely that reason that he wanted to go now, before they had to suffer any more on his behalf? **

The whole room let out a sigh, "I think Tonks said it best when she said that we would die to make a better future for the next generation." Hermione said shaking her head at her best friend's thoughts.

**There was a long and awkward silence in which his scar continued to prickle and throb, and which was broken at last by Mrs. Weasley.**

**"Where's Hedwig, Harry?" she said coaxingly. "We can put her up with Pidwidgeon and give her something to eat."**

Harry froze at Mrs. Weasley's words; all he wanted to do was forget that portion of the book. Ginny saw this and leaned her head in his shoulder as Lily rested her head on his chest.

**His insides clenched like a fist. He could not tell her the truth. He drank the last of his firewhisky to avoid answering.**

**"Wait till it gets out yeh did it again, Harry," said Hagrid. "Escaped him, fought him off when he was right on top of yeh!"**

"But no one is going to find out, considering that the ministry has been infiltrated." Sirius muttered, but everyone heard him. His word caused Fudge to drain of all color, after this book he would be forced to retire or quit.

**"It wasn't me," said Harry flatly. "It was my wand. My wand acted of its own accord."**

**After a few moments, Hermione said gently, "But that's impossible, Harry. You mean that you did magic without meaning to; you reacted instinctively."**

"Before you get angry, Harry, I want to take back my future self's words. I now understand what you meant." Hermione said quickly. Harry just grinned and chuckled.

"Have I really gotten that bad?" he asked. Instead of answering they all nodded together.

**"No," said Harry. "The bike was falling, I couldn't have told you where Voldemort was, but my wand spun in my hand and found him and shot a spell at him, and it wasn't even a spell I recognized. I've never made gold flames appear before."**

**"Often," said Mr. Weasley, "when you're in a pressured situation you can produce magic you never dreamed of. Small children often find, before they're trained –"**

"We would like to apologize on behalf of our father." The twins and Bill said together causing them to look at one another and burst out in laughter.

**"It wasn't like that," said Harry through gritted teeth. His scar was burning. He felt angry and frustrated; he hated the idea that they were all imagining him to have power to match Voldemort's.**

**No one said anything. He knew that they did not believe him. Now that he came to think of it, he had never heard of a wand performing magic on its own before.**

**His scar seared with pain, it was all he could do not to moan aloud. Muttering about fresh air, he set down his glass and left the room.**

**As he crossed the yard, the great skeletal Thestral looked up – rustled its enormous batlike wings, then resumed its grazing. Harry stopped at the gate into the garden, staring out at its overgrown plants, rubbing his pounding forehead and thinking of Dumbledore.**

**Dumbledore would have believed him, he knew it. Dumbledore would have known how and why Harry's wand had acted independently, because Dumbledore always had the answers;**

Dumbledore chuckled, "I'm glad _you _think so my boy but, I am sad to say, I do not know why your wand acted the way it did. But you are right in assuming that I would have believed you."

That made Harry smile and blush slightly.

**he had known about wands, had explained to Harry the strange connection that existed between his wand and Voldemort' But Dumbledore, like Mad-Eye, like Sirius, like his parents, like his poor owl, all were gone where Harry could never talk to them again. He felt a burning in his throat that had nothing to do with firewhisky. . . .**

Ginny was crying silently at Harry's thoughts, she wished she could get them all back for him but it was impossible.

**And then, out of nowhere, the pain in his scar peaked. As he clutched his forehead and closed his eyes, a voice screamed inside his head.**

"Oh no." Hermione groaned.

**"You told me the problem would be solved by using another's wand!"**

**And into his mind burst the vision of an emaciated old man lying in rags upon a stone floor, screaming, a horrible drawn-out scream, a scream of unendurable agony. . . .**

**"No! No! I beg you, I beg you. . . ."**

**"You lied to Lord Voldemort, Ollivander!"**

Everyone gasped at that, Voldemort had Ollivander! Why would he want Ollivander? What would he have to gain by keeping him?

**"I did not swear I did not. . . ."**

**"You sought to help Potter, to help him escape me!"**

**"I swear I did not believed a different wand would work. . . ."**

**"Explain, then, what happened. Lucius's wand is destroyed!"**

Draco paled at the Dark Lord's words. His father's wand destroyed? His father would be devastated, maybe he could get his father to run, go into hiding and never seek the Dark Lord again.

**"I cannot understand The connectio exists only . . between your two wands. . . ."**

**"Lies!"**

**"Pleas beg you. . . ."**

**And Harry saw the white hand raise its wand and felt Voldemort's surge of vicious anger, saw the frail old main on the floor writhe in agony –**

By the end of Harry's 'vision' all of the women were in tears and the men were scared. Lilly was shaking with sobs, "You never told us it was that bad, Daddy." She cried clutching her father's shirt. Harry was at a loss for words as what to do. He wanted to comfort them but he had no idea how. So he just hugged her and kissed her head repeatedly.

**"Harry?"**

**It was over as quickly as it had come: Harry stood shaking in the darkness, clutching the gate into the garden, his heart racing, his scar still tingling. It was several moments before he realized that Ron and Hermione were at his side.**

**"Harry, come back in the house," Hermione whispered, "You aren't still thinking of leaving?"**

**"Yeah, you've got to stay, mate," said Ron, thumping Harry on the back.**

**"Are you all right?" Hermione asked, close enough now to look into Harry's face. "You look awful!"**

"He probably looked better than Ollivander." Bill said causing Sirius to snicker, "What's so funny?" Bill asked. Sirius just shook his head and continued to read.

**"Well," said Harry shakily, "I probably look better than Ollivander. . . ."**

Ron looked at Harry and then at his brother, "You're all crackers!" He exclaimed. Harry and Bill laughed at Ron's words.

**When he had finished telling them what he had seen, Ron looked appalled, but Hermione downright terrified.**

**"But it was supposed to have stopped! Your scar – it wasn't supposed to do this anymore! You mustn't let that connection open up again – Dumbledore wanted you to close your mind!"**

Dumbledore looked pensive, _maybe the connection cannot be blocked?_ He asked himself.

**When he did not reply, she gripped his arm.**

**"Harry, he's taking over the Ministry and the newspapers and half the Wizarding world! Don't let him inside your head too!"**

"It's kind of hard to keep him out, Hermione." Harry said with a scowl. Lily had stopped crying and just sat in her father's lap, she did not want to move, she just wanted to get the book over with and save her Uncle Sirius and Grandpa Dumbledore.

"Lily, we have a question for you." Ginny said looking at Harry, "By you being here, does that mean you and your brothers will not be born?"

**Ooooo cliffie! I absolutely LOVE cliffhangers! I'm really sorry about the long wait but two weeks ago I was in Hershey for the Antique Automobile Club of America. I have been going every year since I was two. I just auditioned for my school talent show yesterday and I get to be in it! YAY! I also got into my school Acapella choir! YAY Soprano ones! Sooo I will try to get up the next chapters as soon as possible.**


End file.
